


Of Love, Unintentional Threesomes, and Sokka

by beersforqueers



Series: Zukka End Game Series [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, Ba Sing Se, Canon Divergent, Endgame Zukka, Explicit Sexual Content, Jet Being Jet, Let's be real do I write any other kind of porn?, M/M, Pao's Teashop, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Probably a later threesome, Reconnaissance Gone Awry, The Gaang - Freeform, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-26
Updated: 2016-01-06
Packaged: 2018-04-23 10:24:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 26,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4873219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beersforqueers/pseuds/beersforqueers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sokka stumbled into Pao's Family Tea House one afternoon to find the last person he expected to see in Ba Sing Se. How Sokka's would-be stakeout of Zuko's new life turned into an unfortunate cover up, a potential threesome with the dude he'd sworn to hate for life, and making some really questionable jokes about tea. </p><p>Or: Reconnaissance was never Sokka's strongsuit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here's the start of the next one! Probably updates won't be as frequent as previous stories, since I'm back at school now, but I still hope not to leave you guys hanging too often :-)

Sokka was exhausted. Well, maybe _exhausted_ was too strong a word, but he was tired and hot and cranky and so done with this. Looking for Appa was all well and good, but traipsing all over this godforsaken city in this kind of heat was inhumane. He needed  _food_.

“Ka-atara…” he whined. “Can we  _please_ stop for a drink?”

His sister turned to glare at him.

“Sokka, if I have to put up with any more of your whining…”

“I’m not whining!” he flopped over onto the nearest stoop, prostrating himself across it to illustrate the depth of his despair. “I just need FOOD!”

“I think you need a kick in the ass,” Toph grumbled. “Want me to give it a go?”

“No!” Sokka yelped. “NO kicking, Toph!”

“Is Baby too delicate?” Toph snorted, leaning over Sokka menacingly.

“No!” Sokka repeated, crossing his arms over his chest protectively. “I’m too _tired_. And hungry! Did I mention hungry?”

“Only about a thousand times,” Katara said. “Don’t you care about finding Appa?”

“Of course I do!” Sokka said, apparently with enough outrage that Katara’s expression softened a little. “I just doubt I’m any use in my depleted state.”

“Don’t you have anything to say about this, Aang?” Katara rounded on him, hand thrown out to make it clear that the _this_ she was talking about was her prone older brother.

“I think that we won’t be able to find Appa if we aren’t at our best,” Aang said gravely. “How about we leave Sokka somewhere to get some food and circle back for him later?”

“Fine!” Katara sighed. “Where do you think?”

“How about there?” Toph pointed in a random direction, her finger ending up aiming straight down an alley, “That seems to be getting a lot of traffic.”

Katara peered down the alley, her face disapproving, “I think that’s a brothel, Toph.”

“Perfect!” Toph grinned. “That’ll occupy him.”

“I am not unopposed,” Sokka said cheerfully from the steps.

“Uh, no, that’s probably not a good idea,” Aang chimed in, ears going red. “How about there?”

He was looking at a squat, slightly rundown little building wedged in between two much larger shops. It had a sloped tile roof that had seen better days and its warped wooden shutters hung at slightly odd angles. The sign above the door read “Pao Family Tea House”.

“I guess that works too,” Sokka said, slowly pulling himself to his feet.

“Good. We’ll be back for you in a few hours,” Katara nodded smartly and turned away. “Don’t spend all your money!” she turned back around to fix him with a stern look, “And don’t you _dare_ go down that alley!”

“I won’t!” he promised, but he heard Toph snickering as they walked away.

“Bet you Snoozles is gonna have to ask you for a whole different kind of healing when he’s done there,” she was saying, “the _embarrassing_ kind.”

“Huh?” Aang asked.

“Don’t listen to her,” Katara’s voice was dwindling with the crowd. “If Sokka gets syphilis, that’s his own prob—“

Sokka turned away, a little aggrieved that his sister would abandon him to the ravages of disease just to prove a point. He looked at the little shop. It didn’t seem promising, but he had agreed to it, so it was his best option.

Throwing a quick glance down the alleyway, he pushed the front door open.

Inside it was packed. He stared around in disbelief. There were two rows of tables lining the front room and a counter in the back where someone with dark hair was ringing up a long line of customers, his head bowed as he scribbled out a receipt. Sokka’s view was suddenly impeded as a very large man squeezed out from behind the table directly to his left and veered in front of him to join the queue. Sokka took the opportunity, diving for his vacant seat before any of the other patrons had a chance.

He landed on the hard wooden stool, ass both slightly bruised and incredibly happy to be sitting, and picked up the man’s discarded menu.

 _Excellent_. There was a long list of various teas, and, crammed at the bottom, a selection of food items. _What has the most meat?_ He held his menu in front of his face, trying to decide.

There was a dry cough from directly in front of him. He looked up, startled, and saw a wiry man with a very thin moustache standing in front of him.

“I’m Pao,” he said by way of introduction. “Ordinarily I don't serve customers, but as we’re so full today…” he gestured around the room. “What can I get you?”

Sokka ordered some noodles and tea, handed his menu over to Pao, and sat back to people watch. There really was every kind of person here. Even after his food arrived he kept watching curiously as everyone from peasants to Earth King citizens clearly from the Upper Ring filtered through the shop, some stopping in only for a cup, some staying to play lengthy games of pai sho, and some leaving with bulging bags of tea leaves for later.

It was an interesting place, and only managed by Pao and a few workers it seemed. The boy who had been ringing people up was still something of a mystery; he had his back to Sokka now, and Sokka couldn’t help craning his neck to try to get a look at his face. If Sokka was judging from just his body—and being brutally honest—he had to admit that the kid was hot. Really hot.

He turned, a tea tray balanced in his arms, and Sokka nearly dropped his chopsticks. That was not the kind of hot he’d been expecting.

Dark scar stretched across his eye, perma-frown dutifully in place, golden eyes flashing as a customer brushed by him and nearly dislodged a teacup… It was a horribly familiar face.

 Zuko.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short one to tide you (and me) over until I have more time to write... Hopefully it'll keep you intrigued ;-)

“Why are you sitting out here?”

“No reason, I just wanted to be, jeez Katara, why are you so suspicious?” Sokka said indignantly.

Katara looked affronted, Toph amused, Aang concerned.

“Sokka, why are you being weirder than normal?” Aang asked.

“Nothing, no reason, whatever,” Sokka jumped up from where he’d been sitting on the curb outside of Pao’s teashop. He’d alternated between pacing and running back and forth between the curb and the front door, trying to decide whether he should go back in and confront fucking _Zuko_ , or stand outside trying to convince himself that the guy inside the teashop couldn’t be Zuko. Because he couldn’t be. Except that he was. There wasn’t any way around it.

But what the hell was he doing in Ba Sing Se working in a teashop? It couldn’t be some incredibly intricate and subtle Fire Nation conspiracy, could it?

“What did you eat?” Katara asked worriedly. “Was there cactus involved?”

“No, I’m good, it was meat, all good!” Sokka began to walk away, realized no one was following him, and turned back around. The other 3 were all staring at him. “Really guys! I’m fine! Let’s go! We have an Appa to save!” he put on his very best cheerful-leader face, and saw all of their expressions return to normal. Aang glanced sideways at Katara, who shrugged as if to say _He’s always been strange_.

_Damn right I have_ Sokka thought to himself, looking back over his shoulder at the teashop. He’d be back. He wasn’t going to risk freaking out the rest of the group until he had more information about Zuko’s presence in the city. It wasn’t connected to Appa’s abduction anyway. Best not to distract the others from their current mission.

He’d get to the bottom of the Zuko mystery by himself.

 

***

 

Jet lounged against the side of the building across from the teashop, a new straw of wheat clenched between his teeth. He’d had a damn hard time finding any in this godforsaken city, but it was well worth the trouble. He had to keep up appearances, and his oral fixation hadn’t been curbed by anything else yet. Not that a couple of guys hadn’t tried to change that in the past.

He snickered softly to himself, but sobered quickly. He had to remember what he was here for, but it was difficult when the two trains of thought were already connected… He’d considered hitting on Li back when they were on the boat, back before he’d known.

He stood up straighter, watching the front of the shop intently. He wasn’t gonna let that stupid firebender lay waste to this city too, not if he could stop it. But he couldn’t do much if Li was part of a wider conspiracy, and he wouldn’t know that unless he was vigilant. So every spare moment he could get away from work, he was here. Circling the teashop and following Li and his uncle home every evening hadn’t been the most interesting job thus far, but hey, he was optimistic. Maybe he and his Freedom Fighters would get another chance at glory for the Earth nation after all.

_What the—?_

Sokka had just come rocketing out of the teashop like his ass was on fire. Which, if he’d had a run-in with Li, wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. He hadn’t been here long enough to see Sokka go in, but something in Sokka’s behavior now nearly made him run forward to question him. He had to know something; he was bouncing back and forth like a toddler with a bladder problem, his bright blue eyes darting towards the door and away again indecisively. 

But then Jet remembered that Sokka hated him. _Oh yeah_. He’d fucked that one up but good. _But he has to know something._ _Maybe if I can get him alone…_ Yeah, that would go well. Sokka’d probably go ape shit and call in that sister of his, Katara. He remembered her well, not that making out in the bushes while Smellerbee distracted the Avatar was that exciting. Still, she hadn’t taken his plan to wipe out the village very well, and he could tell she had a vindictive streak a mile wide. Probably better not to piss her off again if he could help it.            

He eased back against the wall, keeping an eye on Sokka. He’d dropped onto the curb, head in his hands, entire body shaking with nervous energy. It wasn’t until his friends showed back up again that he scrambled up and, consciously or not, shoved himself between them and the door to the teashop. Like he was trying to prevent them from going inside.

This was getting interesting.

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! I am writing the thing! This is really the best use of my time when procrastinating from bio studying, right? No? Ok, well that's what I'm doing anyway.

Convincing Katara to let him out of her sight over the next few days was difficult, but turned out not to be as hard as Sokka’d been anticipating. He was actually quite put out that he wasn’t forced to resort to one of his (many) contingency plans.

So several days later he found himself shoving his way down the crowded Lower Ring street towards the Pao Family Tea Shop. It was still pretty early in the morning, and definitely much earlier than he ordinarily wanted to be awake. But he had a mission, and there was nothing like carrying out a well-crafted plan to motivate Sokka. Or, well, nothing like a half-baked determination to contribute something useful to the team. Surely inside information on the movement of the Fire Nation counted as useful.

The teashop wasn’t as busy this morning as it had been the other afternoon. Sokka chose the same table near the door, at the opposite end of the teashop as the counter. He strategically opened his menu in front of his face and then peered over the top at the shop. On the walk over he’d almost been able to convince himself that he’d hallucinated Zuko, but now, with a hollow swoop in the pit of his stomach, he spotted him again. He was carrying a small tray with a fresh pot of tea and two small china glasses, and calling back over his shoulder to whoever was brewing in the back.

He turned fully and scowled at nothing in particular, moving to his left and away from Sokka to deposit the tray on another patron’s table.

Sokka studied him. So sure, on the first day he’d thought he was hot, but, like, not even. Zuko was _fit_ and sort of athletically built, and sort of built in other ways, fine, but he was also hot in an _evil_ way. Which was the say, _not_ hot. He had a nice ass. And great arms. But what did that mean in the long run? Beauty was superficial. Zuko was an arrogant, violent asshat. It didn’t make any difference to Sokka that he was a beautiful, arrogant, violent asshat. Definitely not. And that scar? Not hot and mysterious. He didn’t even know why those words had popped into his head in relation to Zuko at all. Zuko was _evil_.

Zuko turned from the customer and stormed right back into the kitchen, not even bothering to look around. Sokka sank a little lower in his seat, thinking that if he was here for a stakeout he might as well be well fed. Plus it was only a matter of time until Zuko noticed him, and he was sort of perversely delighted at the idea of Zuko having to serve him.

It took several more rounds of Zuko stomping moodily around the shop distributing the other customers’ orders before he finally arrived at Sokka’s table. Sokka was carefully hiding his face behind his menu, mind scrambling to decide how best to reveal himself. Just as he was considering something dramatic involving jumping onto the table and shouting, Zuko spoke.

“Do you want something?” his voice was a lot lower and raspier than Sokka remembered. It wasn’t sexy. Not even a little bit.

“Um…” Sokka’s brain had shut down. Why had it gone and done that? He dropped the menu onto the table and stabbed randomly. “That one. And whatever has the most meat.” After all, that order had usually done him well in the past. Besides the incident with the armadillo-cat, but he hadn’t _known_ that was what he was eating at the time.

He looked up, having sort of forgotten who was waiting on him. His eyes met a blankly disbelieving face.

“ _You?_ ” Zuko asked, sounding astonished. “What are you doing here? How did you—what are you—Don’t!”

“Don’t what?” Sokka leaned forward in his chair, trying to regain the upper hand he felt sure he’d had at some point. “Reveal your dirty little secret? Bring down the Fire Nation conspiracy operating from within the walls of Ba Sing Se?”

“What?” Zuko shook his head, face rapidly recovering its usual dour cast. It was still pale, though, and Sokka was mollified to see that he looked a little panicky. “It’s not—I’m just—Don’t tell anyone I’m here. I’m not a part of any,” he looked around at the other people in the room and leaned in to hiss, “ _Fire Nation conspiracy_. I’m just working in this tea shop with my uncle. I’m a fucking refugee.”

“Prince Zuko, a refugee?” Sokka let out a mirthless laugh. “A likely story.”

Zuko really did look unnerved now, “Don’t call me Zuko, either! It’s Li, ok? How did you find me?”

“Ok, _Li_ ,” Sokka stroked his chin thoughtfully. “I mean obviously I found you with my incredibly sleuthing skills. But I had to come back to make sure you knew I was keeping an eye on you. So you don’t try to get up to anything. Hey,” he dropped his hand, confused for a second, “you haven’t mentioned the Avatar at all. Usually you’re all,” he mimed blasting fire of his hands, “ _Foom, foom_ , ‘ _Where is the Avatar?! I must regain my honor!’_ But you haven’t asked about him yet.” Sokka narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “It this a part of the plot? Lulling us into a false sense of security? And what happened to your hair? I must say this is a better look for you." _Don't compliment the bad guy on his_ stylistic _choices, dumbass_ he reminded himself.

“No!” Zuko glared, wisely ignoring the hair question, "I told you, I’m not part of any plot! My uncle just wants to be left alone to make tea, and I…” he trailed off, looking disconcerted, “well, Uncle deserves to be happy. And anyway,” he stabbed an accusatory finger at Sokka, “ _you’re_ one to talk! You haven’t told your friends about me yet? Why not? Isn’t that sister of yours just dying to come drown me in my sleep?”

“That sister of mine is named Katara, and yes, she would very much like to drown you,” Sokka said. “But they’re looking for Appa, and I don’t want to distract them until I have you cornered.”

Zuko snorted, “Oh yeah, I feel really threatened. You can’t even bend. They probably don’t want you out looking for the sky bison because you slow them down.”

“Excuse me?” Sokka swelled with impotent rage. “I happen to be an incredibly important part of the team! I contribute meat! And sarcasm! And I read the maps and shit.” He poked Zuko hard in the chest and experienced a feeling of extreme pleasure when Zuko looked infuriated by it. “What did you do when you were ‘looking for the Avatar’?” he sketched quote in the air. “Sit in your room and sulk? Shoot your shitty little fire balls across the deck and get in everyone’s way? At least I’m actually accomplishing something.”

Zuko looked like he’d swallowed an old sea lemon. “I—I didn’t just—“

“And at least I’m not _failing_ at my job,” Sokka carried on.

“You stupid Water Tribe peasant,” Zuko snapped, “You have no idea what you’re talking about. If you knew what I’ve done, what I’ve given up, what I...” his hand floated up as though to touch his scar, then jerked back down to his side. “And what’s your plan? To defeat my father? Good luck,” he let out a derisive noise. “You can’t defeat the Fire Nation. All you can do is get out of their way. And I’ll be here watching when they crush you.”

He yanked Sokka’s menu out from under his hands and stormed off to the kitchen.

“Well I think that went well,” Sokka mumbled to himself.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is longer as a reward for bearing with me through the shorter ones, and to thank you for being patient with me while I work on my actual work :-) 
> 
> Also, I love the comments you guys are leaving; thank you so much for being wonderful readers. I wouldn't write if it weren't for you guys (I'd prolly just have really weird Zukka-themed dreams), so keep it up! I like the encouragement/self-esteem boost ;-)

At the end of the fifth stakeout—the first had ended with Pao reprimanding a sullen Zuko for not serving Sokka promptly enough, while Sokka looked on in extreme amusement—Sokka finally made his way up to the counter to pay. Previously he’d been dropping his money on the table and sneaking out while Zuko wasn’t looking, because he liked to think his mysterious ability to appear and disappear from the shop was putting Zuko on edge. Eventually, though, Zuko had started keeping an eye out for him in the morning and had walked up to him to tell him off for not acting like the other customers. And much as he wanted to irritate Zuko, he felt like maybe his presence would do just as good a job.

Zuko had his back to him when he stepped up to the counter, but he turned at the sound of his approach. He jumped a little when he saw that it was Sokka, edging up to the register with a hunted look in his eye. Sokka held out his money. Zuko stared at it like it was a massive cockroach-spider.

“I don’t want your money,” Zuko said through gritted teeth, entire face going pink.

Sokka chuckled, loving how his amusement seemed to press all of Zuko’s buttons. He looked Zuko right in the eye and dropped several coins into the tip jar. Zuko’s jaw clenched and unclenched angrily.

“I’m a paying customer, _Li_ ,” Sokka said smugly. “And I rather like it here.”

“I’m sure you do,” Zuko hissed. “I’m sure you’re just dying to bring the Avatar and the Earth King here and have me fucking imprisoned, or—“

“Hey hey! Who said anything about that?” Sokka held up his hands, “I mean, maybe eventually once I figure out what you’re doing here, but in the meantime I’m just paying for my tea.” He really was stumped about what Zuko was doing here. He’d doubled back by the teashop around closing time to see what he and his uncle got up to after work, but so far all they’d done was stop at the market on the way home. And even when he’d stuck around their apartment building until the lights went off inside, no one ever came or went.

“How many times…?” Zuko closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again both of his liquid gold eyes were fixed resolutely on Sokka. “I. Don’t. Have. A. Plan. I’m just working, trying to get by. Ok?”

The problem was that Sokka was starting to believe him. He wasn’t even really sure why, past the obvious lack of evidence, but something in Zuko’s face and voice whenever he said it seemed genuine. Sokka didn’t know Zuko that well—being chased all over the world by him hadn’t leant itself to manly bonding—but he’d watched him interacting with patrons and his uncle over the course of the last weeks. He was a lot of things: grumpy, taciturn, disarmingly graceful, impeccably well groomed… he was also _awkward_. And for some reason that intrigued Sokka more than anything else he’d witnessed so far.

And fuck him if he wasn’t going to stay till he figured out why he even cared. Or why he even wanted to stay. He should probably be running home to the others now to warn them that Zuko was in the city; he probably should have done it the second he saw Zuko.

But here he was in the teashop instead, and Zuko was looking at him confusedly, waiting for his response.

“Ok,” Sokka shrugged.

Zuko looked like Sokka had smacked him over the head with tray. “Ok?” he echoed dubiously.

“Yeah. Ok.” Sokka held out his money again. “Do you want this or what?”

Zuko reached out and took it silently, eyes never leaving Sokka’s face. He shoved it into the till and mumbled something completely incoherent. For some reason his cheeks flamed red.

“What was that?” Sokka leaned in dramatically, cupping his hand around his ear.

“Thanks for the tip,” Zuko muttered again.

Sokka was taken aback. He blinked dumbly at him for a second. “Oh, yeah, man, it’s cool,” he shoved his hands awkwardly into his pockets, “Anytime. Or whatever. Kbyeseeyou.” And he ran from the shop, feeling Zuko’s golden eyes on his back and wondering why the hell his face was suddenly burning.

 

***

 

Zuko watched Sokka leave, feeling totally nonplussed. The first time Sokka had showed up at the shop he’d felt panicked that he’d been discovered. The feeling had been strange, because he knew that only a few months before, his appearance would have reignited the all-consuming drive he’d felt to find the Avatar. And then when nothing had happened and a few days went by he’d tried to forget, to return to the mind numbing monotony of their daily lives in Ba Sing Se. Until Sokka had come again and he’d felt another pang, this one of anger at his gall, but also of excitement. Because at least _something_ was happening, at least something was breaking the boredom of this stupid shop.

Oddly enough that flush of excitement had only grown with Sokka’s every appearance, until it was the thing he looked forward to in the morning. It was like playing a game: would he show up today? Would he not? It was a distraction from the endless cycle of work, closing up, traipsing home, and flopping into bed only to get back up in the morning for a repeat performance.

Sokka showed up about every other day, but Zuko also knew that sometimes he followed them home. That was a little bit creepy, but he also knew it was because Sokka was trying to maintain the impression that he was on a reconnaissance mission, and he knew that he’d probably do the same thing if it was him. It flit through his mind that it was possible Sokka was just as bored here as he was. They were both used to leading a team, to traveling all over the world with a specific goal in mind. Being in Ba Sing Se spinning his wheels was probably just as awful for Sokka.

 _Don’t empathize with the enemy_ Zuko smacked himself internally, going back to counting the money in the till. He didn’t know Sokka. He was probably just projecting. He had to admit though, as he methodically straightened stacks of coins, that he’d noticed Sokka before during run-ins with the Avatar. And not in just a “this guy is trying to attack me” way. More in a… “wow, those eyes are really blue” kind of way. Zuko blushed. That was stupid. Why would he notice that? He’d seen blue eyes before.

He glanced into the tip jar; Sokka’d left him a pretty substantial amount. Maybe he should give it back next time he came in. If he did come in.

With a sinking feeling in his chest, he realized that if Sokka really did believe him about not being up to something, there wasn’t a reason for him to come back. Or else he would show back up with his whole entourage of admittedly-fairly-badass benders. Somehow Zuko doubted he’d do that, though. It seemed like Sokka actually believed him.

And wasn’t that strange.

 

***

 

“Sokka have you been at that tea shop again?” Katara asked over her dinner.

“Uh, yeah, why?” Sokka slurped up his soup, trying to keep his voice and expression neutral.

“Must be really good tea,” Toph burped, “or really hot wait staff.”

Aang giggled.

“It is good tea!” Sokka protested.

“Right…” Katara judiciously ignored Toph and Aang’s laughter. “Sokka, you don’t like tea that much. Why are you spending so much time there?”

“It’s like, um, my special place?” Sokka invented wildly. Katara looked unimpressed, and maybe a little alarmed. Sokka tried again, “Remember how you had that ice cave when we were kids where you went when you were angry, and no one was ever allowed to come in?” Katara nodded. “Well maybe I want to have my own place as well. You benders have all your bender stuff going on; I just want a place to hang out with normal people.”

Katara nodded again, more slowly this time. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked down into her rice. She twiddled her chopsticks absently, tapping the ends on the polished wood of the table, thinking. “All right then,” she said finally. “We won’t bug you about it. It’s just… we miss you. I don’t want you to feel left out.”

“No, I don’t! I just, you know. Like alone time.”

“Like hell he does,” Toph said. “It’s definitely a girl.”

“Shut up, Toph!” Sokka snapped, earning more laughter.

“Is it a girl?” Katara asked, face clearing. She even smiled a little.

“No!” Sokka said, Zuko’s face springing into his minds eye. _Definitely not a girl_. He was tempted for a long moment to tell Katara, to come clean about Zuko being in Ba Sing Se. But he also… well, he wasn’t ready. He didn’t have any information on him. He’d tell her eventually.

But for right now—well, he’d just wait. It couldn’t hurt. He was keeping an eye on the situation.

 

***

 

Later that night Sokka found himself outside Zuko’s apartment again. Now that he’d actually talked to Zuko without having a blow out fight, and wasn’t sure whether he was really up to no good, he felt weird. Not like he was doing anything wrong exactly, more like he was being a creep. It was definitely strange to be standing out here in the alley watching the dark figures of Zuko and his uncle walk back and forth in their apartment, maybe making dinner, maybe cleaning up or getting ready for bed. It was dark out by now, and he’d only been here long enough to know that they must have just arrived back from the teashop.

He glanced around the alley, feeling a prickle across his skin. It was a bit cool out, but he didn’t think it was that; his Southern Water Tribe blood made any cold above freezing feel like balmy summer weather. No, he was feeling watched. And that was deeply unsettling.

He turned back to the window. It was probably the Dai Li… they usually leant the feeling of perpetual surveillance to the city, but they mostly kept the crime rates down and made it so he wasn’t getting mugged for standing out here in the night.

But then he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye, just as the lights in the apartment went off, plunging him into complete darkness. A figure was scuttling along the edge of the roof at the end of the alley, right at a good vantage point to peer right into their living room. They were completely black as they swung up over the lip of the next tier of roofing, briefly silhouetted against the dark blue sky.

Sokka stayed stock still in the alley for a few moments more, staring at the place the figure had disappeared, then turned and ran from the alley. Something about how the figure had moved, how it had easily jumped up onto the next roof as though it was used to swinging through the urban jungle—or an actual jungle—had made him uneasy. It was too familiar.

 

***

 

Jet ducked back down behind the edge of the roof, cursing to himself. He was pretty sure Sokka was down there again, and he hadn’t meant to get distracted by him. But now he was equally curious about Sokka’s presence outside of Li’s house, and he wasn’t sure whether or not Sokka had seen him. Jet was there to gather evidence; if he could find out that Li and his uncle were bending in their home, the Earth Nation would have to believe him that Li was Fire Nation. There’d be proof.

But judging from Sokka’s reaction outside the teashop that first day he’d seen him, Sokka already knew something. And he knew from trying to follow Sokka home that he was staying in the swanky part of town. Surely if he was doing that, he had enough influence to declare Li a firebender and have done with it. So why wasn’t he? What was he doing skulking outside Li’s house like a jilted lover?

There had to be something bigger at play here.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. Um. It's been a while... I guess this ended up getting written because I'm procrastinating on my midterms... Future me is going to be really upset about that, but I'm feeling oddly ok with it as of now. This one is also pretty long, so that's something exciting if that's what you're into!
> 
> Also, I'm pretty sure I stole the thing about Zuko only having one eyebrow from someone else, but I can't for the life of me remember who or what fic. So in advance I'm going to apologize for it, but also explain that it's because I think it's hilarious and I must have loved it when I read it so THANK YOU, YOU WONDERFUL HUMAN. 
> 
> Love you guys! Thanks for sticking with me <3

“You’re being watched.”

“No shit,” Zuko snorted, counting out Sokka’s change.

“No, really!” Sokka pushed, taking the money and shoving it into his pocket.

“Sokka, I’m talking to you right now. Do you think I don’t know you’re watching me? You aren’t exactly subtle,” Zuko rolled his eyes, but his words had surprisingly little bite to them.

Sokka had to think for a minute about why he suddenly felt hot around the ears, but then realized that Zuko had just said his name for the first time. Weird how the sound of Zuko’s raspy voice curling around his name was so disarming. Probably because he was evil, and it was normal to feel a chill down your spine when someone evil said your name. Like nails scraping down your back, or… No, that wasn’t the right analogy.

“That was a bad analogy,” Sokka shook his head to himself.

“I didn’t use an analogy,” Zuko rolled his eyes again, letting out a long-suffering sigh.

“No, I meant that someone _else_ is watching you, dumbass,” Sokka recovered, surprised to see that Zuko didn’t even flinch at the news. He shrugged and turned away, making to walk into the back room. Sokka followed him.

“What are you—Hey!” he glared at Sokka. “You aren’t supposed to be back here.”

“I’m not a normal customer, Zuko,” Sokka folded his arms over his chest. “Try to make me leave.”

“Oh whatever,” Zuko groaned. He walked over to the sinks where a note was affixed to the faucet. Sokka leaned in and read over his shoulder:

 

_Just out to restock the Lapsang… be back within the hour. You can brew the tea well enough to cover for me._

_Love,_

_Uncle_

Zuko sighed again and peeked back into the main room of the shop. It wasn’t very full; only a few customers sat scattered among the tables, all of them still nursing full pots of tea. A few old men in the back played a lazy game of pai sho.

“Ok, fine,” Zuko leaned against the counter. “Why are you upset about this? They’re watching all of us.”

“Oh!” Sokka understood all of a sudden. “You think it’s the Dai Li?”

“Who else would it be?” Zuko asked, filling a glass of water from the pump at the sink. He absently handed it to Sokka and filled another, drinking it down in one go. Sokka stared at his own cup for a moment and then at the long, pale column of Zuko’s throat as it worked to swallow the liquid.

“Uh, I don’t know. I thought maybe you’d know. But it isn’t the Dai Li,” he said quickly. “This guy wasn’t nearly as good. I mean, I saw him for one. But he kind of… reminded me of someone.” Sokka shook his head. It was ridiculous for him to be thinking of the person who he was. That guy would have no reason to be in Ba Sing Se. 

“Who?” Zuko set the glass down.

“Jet,” Sokka admitted. “You didn’t—“

“I know him,” Zuko said quietly. “We were on the ferry to Ba Sing Se together. But I don’t think he has any reason to be watching me. He doesn’t know who I am.”

Sokka had to rewind his brain a little to assimilate the information that not only was Jet in the city, he knew Zuko.

“In what capacity do you know him?” he asked slowly.

“What do you mean?” Zuko asked.

“I mean… do you just know Jet, or do you _know_ him?” Sokka was trying to squash down an odd feeling that was trying to claw its way up out of his chest. It was sort of stifling and hot and uncomfortable.

“Oh my god,” Zuko threw his head back and let out a strange, rusty sound. It took Sokka a second to realize that it was a _laugh_. That Zuko was _smiling_. He had to admit, it was like seeing a platypus-bear walking on its hands. Completely weird and unsettling and also kind of mesmerizing. “Did you really just ask what I think you did? What business is it of yours if I’ve fucked a million guys I met on the ferry?”

Sokka choked and sputtered on the water he’d just tried to sip nonchalantly. Zuko, looking a bit alarmed, slapped him on the back. Sokka stared at him, setting the glass down hastily.

“I didn’t fuck Jet,” Zuko clarified, still smiling. It stretched his scar in a way that made Sokka wonder if it hurt, but overall it was a nice thing. Zuko actually had a pretty nice smile, even if it looked a little out-of-practice.

“Right.”

They looked at each other for a second, Zuko’s eyebrows migrating towards his hairline all the while. Well, his eye _brow_ did. Which…

“Whoa…” Sokka leaned in closer. “You only have one eyebrow!” he waggled his own experimentally, as though checking to make sure they were both still firmly attached. “I can’t believe I never noticed this before. All this time, we’ve been getting chased across the world by a dude with _only one eyebrow._ ”

“I fail to see how this is relevant,” Zuko huffed, hands balling into fists at his sides. The awkward moment was completely broken, and Zuko wasn’t smiling any more. Somehow Sokka felt they were back on more solid ground.

“It totally isn’t,” Sokka said happily. He leaned in even closer, practically breathing the same air as Zuko. “But in the meantime…” he held up a finger as though to poke Zuko in the forehead.

Zuko grabbed him by the shoulders, meaning to push him away, but instead his hands closed over his shirt and just… didn’t. Sokka’s finger never made landfall on Zuko’s face, either. It hung in the air between them, forgotten, as they stared at each other. Zuko’s eyes flicked for one infinitesimal second to Sokka’s lips, then back up again, and he licked his own. Sokka felt drawn to it suddenly, he leaned in a little, almost unconsciously, not really sure what he was doing…

_Bang!_

“Nephew, I am back!” Iroh rumbled.

Luckily Iroh’s girth preceded him through the door, giving Zuko and Sokka enough time to spring apart and pretend nothing untoward was going on. Sokka grabbed blindly onto the edge of the counter behind him, trying to lean casually, even while he watched Zuko’s rapidly reddening face with some fascination. He was barely making an effort at nonchalance; his shoulders were so tense they were almost up around his ears. Sokka let out a short chuckle at the sight, and was rewarded with a sharp glare from Zuko.

“Li!” Iroh finally made his way through the tiny doorframe and stood before them, winging his shopping bags cheerfully on his arm. “You have a friend!” He looked Sokka up and down appraisingly, and his eyebrows lifted in surprise. He cleared his throat and looked to Zuko, but didn’t say anything.

“No I don’t,” Zuko muttered, grabbing Sokka by the arm. “He was just leaving.” He hauled him to the door and shoved him through it, back out into the shop. He caught the door as it swung back towards him, “I can take care of myself, Sokka.”

“But Jet—“

“I’m fine, Sokka. Go home.” And then the door snapped shut.

 

***

 

Sokka was on edge tonight. He wasn’t really sure why, but for some reason he had that antsy feeling that he was waiting for something to happen. The night seemed to crackle with tension, but maybe it was just him. Maybe he was just being stupid.

He shuffled his feet back and forth in the loose dirt that coated the stones of the alley floor. He wrapped his arms around himself, looked up at the moon just to say hi. Shook his head at being so ridiculous.

He glanced over to Zuko’s window instead. He really shouldn’t be here. It was definitely weird now… they weren’t fighting with each other. Zuko really wasn’t here for anything suspicious; he was just working in the shop with his uncle. Sokka should go.

But instead he hugged himself a little tighter. He’d just stay until the lights went off again. Maybe if he kept an eye out for Jet he could rationalize this to himself, but he hadn’t seen any sign of him yet tonight. And he didn’t feel like he was being watched. It was just him standing alone in the alleyway creepily watching an enemy who didn’t feel like an enemy anymore.

He snorted derisively at himself. “Stupid,” he mumbled to himself. He turned and began to walk away, thinking that the earlier he was back to the Upper Ring the fewer of Katara’s questions he’d have to answer.

There was a loud creak from behind him.

He whipped around, boomerang at the ready, instinctively sinking into a defensive crouch.

It was Zuko, pushing the door shut behind him as he stepped out into the alley.

“Gods, announce yourself, would you?” Sokka dropped his arms, still clutching his boomerang in his hand. “I almost brained you.” He tucked his boomerang back into his belt and looked expectantly up at Zuko. “What do you—um…” he realized that this wasn’t so much a case of Zuko coming to find him, as it was Zuko coming to chase him out from under his window. He really wasn’t in a position to be asking questions.

But Zuko wasn’t saying anything. He was just standing there staring at Sokka, his face totally unreadable in the dark.

“Yeah, I was just going…” Sokka gestured feebly toward the entrance of the alley. “Sorry about that. But, uh, Jet hasn’t shown up, so I figured, you know, you’re probably good—“ he inched backward toward the street, pretty sure that the prolonged silence on Zuko’s end couldn’t be a good thing.

Zuko stepped forward into the light filtering in from the street. His eyes were dark and flat, fixed on Sokka. His entire body was tensed. He looked furious.

Sokka took another involuntary step backward, and Zuko mirrored him.

“Why did you care?” Zuko asked, his voice snapping through the night air.

Sokka flinched a little before steeling himself. “About what?” he asked, holding his hands up in surrender.

“About Jet,” Zuko said, stalking forward to jab him accusingly in the chest with a finger. Sokka was startled by the heat that spread from the tiny point of contact; he looked down at his shirt just to make sure Zuko hadn’t burned a hole in it.

“What?” he asked, completely taken aback.

Zuko muttered something that sounded like a curse, grabbed Sokka by the front of the tunic, and dragged him around the side of the building. There was a tiny courtyard behind the apartment, sequestered from the street, although the rumblings of carts and people passing back and forth could still be heard faintly.

“Why do you care if I fucked Jet?” Zuko dropped his shirt and turned away, running a hand distractedly through his hair. It stuck up all over his head, and Sokka was so diverted by it that he almost didn’t answer.

“I mean, I don’t like Jet…” Sokka said dumbly. Zuko turned back and scowled at him. Sokka felt like the world was tilting sideways just to spite him, making this entire situation so surreal that he couldn’t quite wrap his head around it.

“It’s not that,” Zuko shook his head.

“Has this been bugging you all day?” Sokka asked incredulously.

Zuko shrugged, tight and quick like he was shaking off an irritating itch.

“It has…” Sokka edged closer to him, trying to get a good look at his face. “Oh my gods, it totally has. Why?”

Zuko twisted uncomfortably, practically writhing under Sokka’s scrutiny, “I don’t know.”

“Yeah you do, or you wouldn’t be asking _me_ ,” Sokka pointed out, gleeful that he’d turned the tables so quickly.

“Whatever, Sokka, just—“ up this close, Sokka could clearly see that Zuko was blushing. The implications of that weren’t really setting in, but he reached out anyway and wrapped a hand around the back of Zuko’s head, tilting his face so that he had to look at him.

Zuko stared down at him defiantly, finally meeting his eye, and it wasn’t fury that was causing the intensity in them so much as…

“Oh,” Sokka whispered. His heart had started beating hard in his chest as the pieces started to slide into place. “Oh.”

Zuko was standing very still, his chest rising and falling rapidly, his eyes wide. He looked like he was trying very hard to keep them on Sokka’s face. Sokka had to appreciate the bravery inherent in that.

“I, uh—“ Sokka stepped forward, and Zuko twitched, his hands rising a little like he meant to take hold of Sokka, but thought better of it. Sokka looked down; he could feel the wisps of hair coming out of his wolf-tail stirring in the eddy of Zuko’s breath. Zuko’s hand was frozen halfway to his waist, and he knew suddenly what Zuko wanted, what he was holding back from.

He’s always been the one who made plans, yeah, and he’d always carried them through pretty meticulously, but he was also kind of brash and stupid sometimes. He blamed it on not being able to control his mad genius impulse sometimes, but really it was just poor impulse control. And sometimes that poor impulse control was the best thing ever.

Especially when it made him do something as dumb as grab Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation by the front of his robes and push him into a brick wall for a good, thorough make out session. Well, he hoped it would evolve into a make out session, because for now Zuko was too startled to do much more than grab Sokka right back and hold on like his life depended on it.

“What are you—“ he sounded a little alarmed as Sokka’s lips met his, but his words dissolved into a sigh almost immediately. His lips parted slightly under Sokka's, and Sokka shivered at how warm they were. It was a fairly chaste kiss, considering how close they were pressed together and how desperately they were holding onto each other. Sokka’s overwhelming urge, past _Take his clothes off right now_ was to make sure he didn’t fuck this up in some huge, monumental way. This felt so tenuous, so new and frightening and potentially earthshattering that all he could do was keep brushing his lips over Zuko’s until Zuko pulled away, turning his head to gasp like he couldn’t get enough air. His hand let go of Sokka and scrabbled at his chest, his eyes sliding closed. Sokka stepped back a little, concerned, but Zuko’s other hand shot out and seized his wrist.

“Don’t go,” Zuko whispered. He’d turned so that only the unblemished side of his face showed, and Sokka was blown away by how beautiful he was. Well, if it wasn’t super fucking weird to think of another guy as beautiful. Which it was. _But also not that much weirder than all the rest of this_ he reminded himself. “I, um,” Zuko rasped, “I can’t bend. So that makes it hard…” he blew out a long, frustrated sigh, “it makes it hard when I get worked up. I can’t—“

“Um, ok, I—“ Sokka was internally dancing at the idea that he’d managed to break Zuko with literally the gentlest of kisses. But also uneasy about the complications that might ensue if they went any further.

“I’m ok,” Zuko said hurriedly, like he’d read Sokka’s mind. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I just miss it.”

“Yeah,” Sokka’s mind flashed to his father, to the tundra and glaciers and Gran Gran all waiting back home. “I know what you mean.”

They stood there in silence for a few minutes, Zuko taking deep breaths to calm down, Sokka waiting patiently while the circle of fingers around his wrist cooled to a closer resemblance of a normal body temperature.

“So…” Sokka said at last. Zuko looked at him fully again, the scarred side of his face in shadow. He looked withdrawn, like he was expecting Sokka to reject him. “So we keep this quiet for now?” Sokka asked. _What am I saying?_ _This is insane_. He stomped down on the thoughts, watching Zuko’s face open up in disbelief.

“You want this?” he asked, gesturing at himself, then at Sokka. “It’s not… I mean. It’s weird. And it, it won’t work. It can’t. But…” he pulled at Sokka’s wrist, bringing him closer. “I want it.”

“Yeah, I think I do,” Sokka said. He closed his eyes, trying to shake the image of Katara and Aang’s horrified faces from the inside of his lids. _What the fuck am I doing?_ “We can make it work, right?”

Zuko laughed hollowly, “It looks like we’re gonna try.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, point out the types so I can correct them. A lot of this was written at weird times of the night, so I can't always attest to its legibility... Oh my god, I literally just spelled "typo" wrong. Help.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, um, it's been a while... But since midterms are over and break is coming up, maybe you'll finally get another update in the near future. In the meantime, thought I'd put this one out there, since I JUST finished it. It's dedicated to J--should she ever have the time to read it--since she held me together this week. Hope you all enjoy!!! Some of our main characters are finally getting some action ;-)

“Whatcha doin’?”

“Inventory.”

“Can I help?”

“No.”

“Oh come on.”

“No.”

“Ugh, you’re such an asshole.”

“You’re a pain in the ass.”

“Whatever.”

Sokka flopped over the edge of the counter, pouting.

“Wanna make out?”

“No,” the back of Zuko’s unscarred ear turned bright red, and he ducked his head further into the packing crate. “I mean, yes, but NO, Sokka, get your hands off me.”

The second Zuko had said yes, Sokka had slid off the counter and plastered himself to Zuko’s back. Zuko tried valiantly to ignore Sokka’s wandering hands, but Sokka smirked to himself when Zuko yelped and shot straight upright like he’d been burned.

“ _Sokka!_ ” he hissed in scandalized tones. “What is _wrong_ with you?”

“Nothing you don’t like,” Sokka reasoned, running a hand casually down Zuko’s hip.

“I’m at _work_ right now,” Zuko protested, his head falling back onto Sokka’s shoulder.

“I don’t see Pao, or your uncle, or any customers,” Sokka said. It was true: the shop had closed a half hour before and Iroh had already left to have dinner and play pai sho with their downstairs neighbor. Zuko was both pleased and slightly horrified by Iroh’s interest in Ms. Chen. Pleased because it meant he had more time alone in their tiny apartment, but horrified because the idea of his uncle getting it on with anyone was repugnant.

“I know, but I have to put away these new cups,” Zuko squirmed, losing his grip on the edge of the packing crate. His eyes slid shut for a moment while he marshaled his self control against the way Sokka was gently rolling his hips against him.

They hadn’t done _that_ yet. Well, they hadn’t really done that much of anything yet, but for some reason that was the thing that never failed to make him hot and cold all over at the thought of it. Sokka wasn’t really hard yet, just comfortably _there_. With his hips pressed flush against Zuko’s ass.

“Ok, stop, really, _Sokka_ ,” his voice came out as an embarrassing whine, but he breathed deeply through his nose to calm down his racing heartbeat.

“Fine,” Sokka sighed, and backed off, hopping up onto the counter smoothly. Zuko tried to relax, but now he was even more wound up. Not wanting to burn the wooden shipping crate, he plunged his hands into the cool dishwater in the sink next to him. Sokka laughed quietly as steam rose out of the tub.

Zuko shot him the dirtiest look in his arsenal, which was having disturbingly little effect recently. Sokka just grinned back at him, swinging his legs childishly so that they thumped against the wooden cupboard doors.

“You’re so irritating,” he huffed.

“It’s a good thing you like my dick, then,” Sokka said lightly.

Zuko flushed again. “I’m not that familiar with it, actually,” he muttered.

“We could always fix that,” Sokka laughed. “Your uncle isn’t home.”

Zuko stayed silent for just long enough that Sokka began to speak again.

“No pressure, though, I mean, it hasn’t been that long, and if you haven’t been with a dude before—“

“What, and you have?” Zuko turned, having put away the last of the teacups. He crossed his arms defensively over his chest.

“Oh, you know, Aang and I—“

“Ew, the _Avatar??_ ”

“Nonono, I’m kidding! I’m totally kidding!” Sokka shook his head frantically at Zuko, who subsided against the counter, horrified expression still in place. “He’s, like, 12. That’s disgusting. But, uh, Teo… Teo had a beautiful brain.”

“Right…” Zuko said, trying to quash the jealous buzzing of his fire under his skin. He really wanted to light that Earth Nation fucker on fire for some reason. Probably it was better to tamp down on that particular urge. “Well. I only had Mai. And our parents always made sure someone was keeping an eye on us. It would be bad form for heir of the Fire Nation to knock up his girlfriend.”

“But you guys were pretty young, right?” Sokka asked. “Probably not old enough for that anyway.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Zuko said, looking away. For some reason he was mortified that Sokka had more romantic experience than him. He’d lived on a ship with a ton of horny men for years now; he knew what guys did together. He wasn’t even opposed to it, obviously, but he’d been the prince, and his uncle was always around and there had never been a person who he’d… Yeah. He hadn’t had the opportunity to be with anyone until Sokka, not counting that one date with Jin.

“And Haru, I suppose,” Sokka tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Poor Katara was so mad at me when she found out. But then she went and made out with Jet, so she doesn’t have a leg to stand on.”

“Katara and Jet?” Zuko sputtered. “And stop bragging about your conquests.”

“Feeling inadequate, Prince Zuko?” Sokka quirked an eyebrow at him, smirking. “Being rich doesn’t always get you some, now does it?”

“Don’t call me that,” Zuko snapped. “It’s Li. And just because I’m not a, a…slut, doesn’t mean I couldn’t have—“

“Li!” Sokka clapped a hand to his chest melodramatically, “You wound me with your words! How dare you cast aspersions upon my honor!”

“Oh fuck off,” Zuko threw a dishrag at him, narrowly resisting the temptation to light it on fire first. He didn’t **really** want to give his boyfriend second degree burns to the face. Still, it hit him dead on with a satisfyingly wet _smack_. Sokka peeled it off and scowled affrontedly.

“Now that was just rude,” he complained.

“You deserved it.”

“Yeah, I probably did,” Sokka admitted.

Zuko turned to pick up the crate and carry it to the back alley door, shaking his head as went. He was still amazed at how optimistic Sokka was. He was always laughing, joking, poking fun at him… he had to confess that it was kind of nice. He’d always taken himself seriously because that was the expectation of him. Sokka couldn’t quite bring him to crack a joke yet, but just being around him made him feel lighter.

Still, he mused as he set the crate out for the delivery boy to pick up later, Jet and Katara was a surprise. He’d seen the smoldering looks Jet had shot him on the ferry… he’d even entertained the thought of encouraging them—Jet was hot, after all—but somehow he hadn’t been able to bring himself to it. Jet was a little too erratic, a little too dangerous. Sokka, though… Sokka was so beautiful it sort of hurt, but in a good way. Because at the end of the day, he got to be the one to touch Sokka.

He turned around in the doorway and looked over at Sokka, who was absently running a thumb along the blade of one of his knives to test the edge. A lock of hair flopped out of his wolf-tail and across his forehead, making something go all soft and melty in Zuko’s chest.

“Let’s go,” Zuko said on a whim. “Uncle won’t be back for a while.”

“Yeah?” Sokka asked, a slow smile spreading across his face. “Are you sure?”

“I’m definitely sure,” Zuko said, and held out a hand. Sokka hopped off the counter and took it.

“Good,” Sokka looked up at him and his face was open and defenseless. Zuko was hit by just how different he looked without the pinched, suspicious expression he’d always had for Zuko in the past. Seeing it gone made him hope it never had reason to return.

“Come on,” he tugged Sokka out of the shop and down the alley toward his apartment.

 

 ***

 

Jet was sick of sitting here. He twirled one of his fu tao idly in his hand, lying across one of the upper roofs above Li’s apartment. About an hour ago that stupid uncle of his had come home—Moshi? Mushi? Whatever—and riffled through the apartment for a change of clothes, before running back out again. From the looks of it the old man had a hot date, and Jet could only envy him that. If his nights were going to continue to be spent hanging out on this roof seeing a whole lot of nothing, he might have to start visiting the brothels down below more often. That was the only way he was gonna get some these days.

He straightened up a little after this thought, a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye setting him at high alert.

 _Yes!_ Li was back at last, dragging someone behind him. They passed through a patch of light, and Jet nearly choked on his wheat straw. It was Sokka, but before he could register more than his ponytail bobbing along in time to their feet, they were gone again, up the front stairs to Li’s apartment. The lights inside sprang to life, but he slumped back down when he saw the tinderbox in Li’s hand. Was it just him, or did Li look frustrated as he carefully stoked a flame to life in the lamps?

But then he was turning, taking Sokka not-too-gently by the front of his tunic, pulling him from where he’d been dawdling by the door. Sokka’s hands rose to Li’s and then..

_What the--?_

Jet swung down to the next lowest roof, intent on getting closer to the open window. His feet slid dangerously on the slick tiles, but he barely noticed. He crouched down, craned his neck to see better, and sure enough…

This was not the stakeout mission he’d bargained for.

They were kissing. Not just kissing, but kissing _furiously_ ; he could see tongues and teeth and hands ripping clothes out of the way in a desperate race for contact. His mouth dry, his hands clenched tight to the edge of the roof, he leaned forward a little more. Gods, this was making him hard, making him realize how long it had been since he’d done that with anyone.

And now Li was naked, and Sokka was on his knees, and Li’s head was falling back, his mouth opening, his eyes sliding shut as his hands curled into Sokka’s hair. Jet almost closed his eyes at the intensity of the scene, but he couldn’t look away. He was also painfully aware of the fact that the Dai Li could come along at any time, and fuck all if he didn’t want to get caught on the rooftop with his pants down. Plus frantically jerking off to his quarries’ sexcapades seemed a little unprofessional. He was supposed to be on the lookout here.

He couldn’t help it if the lookout was a little—ok, a lot—more interesting than he’d bargained for. He’d known something was up, but he’d never in a million years thought that the _up_ was Li’s dick, and, more specifically, Li’s dick down Sokka’s throat. Because Sokka looked like he knew what was doing. Jet let out a low, appreciative whistle. He’d apparently picked the wrong sibling back in the forest.

 _Maybe if I’d fucked Sokka I’d have gotten away with driving the Fire Nation out of the valley_ he thought immediately, then quashed the sentiment. He was happy to be where he was now, he reminded himself. _That was your wakeup call. You need to be the good guy now. Focus._ Because here was Li, with his guard down, and maybe this was it. Maybe now was the night he was going to finally see evidence of Li’s firebending.

If only he’d known it would take something like this to get Li to stop being so careful. He smirked to himself and clamped his teeth down on the end of his straw. He’d be perfectly happy to swap with Sokka, or, you know, double team if that’s what he was into. Sokka was a good-looking dude.

He slid down onto his ass, legs hanging off the edge of the roof, hands holding tight to the gutter. They seemed to be getting to the good part: Li’s hands tightened in Sokka’s hair, and threads were escaping out of his little ponytail. Sokka drew back, smiling cheekily up at Li, who smiled and said something quietly that made Sokka throw back his head and laugh. Li looked ridiculously proud of himself, and his face softened as he stroked a finger across Sokka’s cheekbone, brushing his hair back behind his ear. Sokka straightened, a hand reaching to drag his thumbnail up the underside of Li’s cock.

Neither of them were smiling now, both refocused on each other, the tension so palpable that Jet let go of the edge of the roof to readjust himself. Unfortunately, the feeling of his own hand on his dick was enough to make him shudder, his ass scooting a few precarious inches down the tiles. He scrambled back with much less coordination than usual, swearing. He’d almost forgotten where he was.

When he’d secured his position he looked up and nearly lost it again. Sokka had crowded Li up against the wall, and _shit_ he hadn’t thought Sokka was that strong. Somewhere along the line they’d both gotten completely naked, and Sokka’d hoisted Li’s thighs up on either side of his hips. Their foreheads were pressed together, and Jet saw Sokka’s lips moving, like he was whispering something comforting to Li, who closed his eyes, drew a breath, and nodded. Sokka’s hips eased forward, and Li’s head snapped back, his chest rising and falling rapidly, his eyes bright and glassy. Sokka’s mouth dropped to Li’s shoulder, lips sliding back and forth across his skin while they held each other suspended, their thighs straining with the effort of holding back. Then Li gritted his teeth, his hand dancing down Sokka’s spine. Jet sucked in a breath as Li’s nails scored long lines across brown skin, and then sunk into Sokka’s ass, urging him on.

Sokka didn’t need to be told twice, apparently. He began to move, and the controlled, graceful roll of his thighs and ass made Jet’s heart thump loudly in his ears.

It was too much. He peered around the surrounding rooftops, and seeing no sign of the Dai Li, quickly undid the front of his belt just enough to spring his cock free. Feeling like a creep, but not being able to bring himself to give a shit, he stroked up and down a few times before he let his eyes wander back to the scene in front of him. Sokka and Li were kissing again, but it was hot and messy, Li’s fingers wrapped around the back of Sokka’s neck and clutching at his ass, Sokka’s hands steadying Li’s hips as he fucked him. Jet let himself float in and out of focus, his brain supplying some substitutions for the noises he couldn’t hear from this far away, his hand jerking harder and faster up and down his own cock.

He didn’t last long—one look at Li’s face as he came all over Sokka’s abdomen, the way Sokka’s hips snapped forward erratically a few more times before he followed suit… he came suddenly, shooting all over his belt accidentally as he clapped his other hand over his mouth to muffle his shout. When he finally let go of his dick, he saw that Li and Sokka had made it horizontal, splayed out on Li’s sleeping mat, whispering softly to one another.

Abruptly feeling like an asshole, he cleaned himself up with the belt and tossed it over the side of the roof. He’d just jerked off to someone else’s intimate moment, and gods if that wasn’t a new level of sleazy, even for him. He felt disgusting, drained, unsure of what the hell he was doing here perched on this roof, watching Sokka and Li get all post-coital-cutesy.

 _Firebender_ he reminded himself, but for the first time in his life the rage that usually flooded him at the word was absent.

He felt empty without it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know how you feel about it! I can't say frequently enough how much I love when y'all comment, or how much it means to me that you're enjoying my ridiculous stories. 
> 
> And, of course, you all have the (un)lucky task of proofreading for me, so lemme know if there's a problem. I'm probably not the most canon-consistent since I'm just winging it between schoolwork, but huge gaffes can definitely be fixed.   
> Thanks again! Love you all :-)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm finally sort of ahead of myself again you guys!!! I have chapters lined up! CHAPTERS LINED UP I TELL YOU. It's a Thanksgiving miracle. 
> 
> ...also the result of many hours in an airport, eating dinner super early, and being banished from the living room because I said the words "Hockey is way better than football" to a room full of rabid Packers fans. Don't do that kids.

He shouldn’t be here. He knew that. But he was still trying to kid himself into thinking that he spying on Li for reasons other than because he was hooking up with Sokka. For reasons other than watching their little romance play out and wishing he had more waiting for him back in his shitty apartment than Smellerbee and Longshot cuddling on their bedroll, and his own blankets empty and cold.

He swung one of his hooks back and forth idly. He was sprawled out on his stomach across the roof above the teashop, head and arms dangling off the side, feet hooked around the low peak of the roof to keep himself from sliding off. The blood was rushing to his head, making it giddy and difficult to think. He was glad about that—he’d never been much of a thinker anyway, and he’d been doing a lot of it lately.

He rolled over on the roof, scooting up to throw his knees over the top so that he could lie on his back. The sky was smoky from the industry of thousands of Ba Sing Se residents, but above that the sky was blue and expansive. He had the sudden feeling of falling up into it, passing through the gauzy layers of mist and cool air until he hurtled away from the Earth forever.

He sat up and swayed a little, turning to sit on the roof properly so that he didn’t fall to his death on the cobblestones below. Well, he leaned over the edge and peered at the alley, maybe to his permanent injury.

So why did he want to watch them? Yeah, he kind of got off on it in a weird, fucked up way. But it also hurt, hurt in a way he’d never have expected it to, because neither of them were anything to him. They were just so…tender with each other. He’d seen them fight and fuck and fuck _like_ they were fighting, but there was always this underlying gentleness to the way they handled each other as they talked or laughed or even just brushed up against one another while they walked. He’d spent his adolescence in a forest, with the eerie quiet of snow-muffled trees, the fierce howling of wind through branches during a storm, the rough scrape of bark against his skin when he got too cocky and fell while climbing. He’d never felt _soft_ or _kind_ or, he hated to even think it, _loving_ , not since he was a child. Even that was just a fuzzy, vague sense of warmth and light, and it was heavily tempered with the fear and rage from the night his home and family had burned.

So why did he care?

It was getting dark by the time Sokka and Li came stumbling out of the back room of the shop. Jet had gotten the afternoon off work, and he’d been watching that door all day, just so he could see them shoving each other off the empty packing crates they’d perched on to eat lunch, laughing and eventually kissing after Li pouted at a dropped dumpling.

They closed up the back of the shop, Li bending down to lock the door while Sokka danced an impatient little jig behind him. Li turned when he was done and put a hand on Sokka’s shoulder, obviously teasing him. The second that Li’s hand made contact with him, Sokka stopped bouncing, and even though Jet couldn’t hear what they were saying, the expression on Li’s face said that Sokka had been snarky back. Li smiled, but didn’t say anything else as they began to walk toward the street.

Jet rolled up on the balls of his feet, crouching so that he could creep along the edge of the roof and follow them. The sun had properly set, and stars were struggling to shine through the city’s gloom. Jet felt a swoop of sadness. No matter how high he climbed here, he could never break that sooty cloud to see the stars and planets pinwheel across the sky at night.

They’d reached the end of the alley, but instead of moving together to the left, they stopped. Jet slunk down lower, peering down at them while they said goodbye. They were still in the dark mouth, out of the way of prying eyes from the street, and Li pressed Sokka up against the dirty brick wall, sliding a knee between his legs. Jet sucked in a breath, watching them kiss. Just when he thought they’d go the whole hog and get horizontal right then and there, Li pulled away, planted one last chaste peck to Sokka’s lips, and hurried away down the street.

Sokka slumped against the wall, looking drained, and ran a hand over his face, then down to rearrange himself. _You and me both, buddy_ Jet thought bitterly. Sokka stood up and finally left the alley, heading off the other way.

For a split second, Jet was oddly tempted to follow him, but he remembered how they’d left things, and, on the whole, he thought he’d rather take his chances with Li. Even if he was a firebender.

He stole sideways along the tiles, keeping Li in his line of site as he made his way through the throng. In all likelihood he was just on his way home, and Jet could get there with his eyes closed by now, but he didn’t want to get ahead of himself. Sure enough, Li made the final turn and was almost to his building when…

“Hey.” Jet wasn’t sure what made him do it, but he slung himself off the side of the roof and dropped lightly in the middle of the path. He leaned against the side of the building, chomping down on the end of his straw to keep himself from ruining the moment by saying anything else.

Li barely flinched, although he did take a step back, his eyes narrowing warily.

“What.” His teeth were gritted, and it wasn’t a question. He didn’t seem surprised to see Jet again, which was… interesting.

“How you been, Li?” Jet asked easily, “How’s Sokka?”

Li’s entire frame went rigid, and for a moment Jet was sure he was going to deny any involvement with him. “He’s fine,” Li said at last, then moved to walk around Jet. Jet sidestepped, keeping himself in Li’s way. Li groaned audibly and stopped, glaring balefully at Jet in a way that he couldn’t help but find kind of cute. “What do you want, Jet?”

“Me? Nothing much,” Jet insisted, tucking his hands into his pockets and trying to look innocent. “Just a chat.”

“Yeah. Right,” Li rolled his eyes.

“So Sokka’s good…” Jet continued, not sure where he was going with this, but full of a rash, impulsive energy that drove him to keep this going as long as possible. “And he’s good to you?” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. There was a faint flush creeping up Li’s cheeks that was _very_ appealing.

“Yes.”

“Too bad,” Jet said, smirking. He remembered those moments on the boat with Li where he’d been so sure he’d felt something between them. He stepped up into Li’s space. Li didn’t move. Jet swept his eyes lazily up and down him, lingering, “I’m not too bad, myself.”

Li’s lips parted slightly in disbelief, and Jet thought about surging forward, kissing the surprise off of him. “But maybe we missed the boat on that one,” he said, meaning for it to be a truly terrible joke, but it came out sounding almost wistful. Li looked even more confused. “Probably missed it with Sokka, too,” he continued, chewing thoughtfully on the end of his straw, “picked the wrong sibling way back when.”

“Um…” Li looked up and down the street around them like he was trying to catch upon anything familiar with which to orient himself. “Are you…ok?”

The words hit Jet harder than he ever could have guessed they would.

“Yeah,” he choked out, nonchalance so forced that he had to stop himself from visibly cringing. “I’ll see you around.” Maybe it was time to cut his losses and get the hell out of there. He pulled a hook free from his belt and reached up to grab hold of the nearest gutter. He swung himself onto the roof and out of sight, only stopping to collapse against the side of a chimney when he was sure Li couldn’t see him anymore.

 

***

 

“I ran into Jet yesterday.”

“What?” Sokka yelped. “What happened?”

“Nothing, really,” Zuko said, shrugging. He furrowed his brow, thinking back on it. “It was weird. He was acting really weird.”

“Crazy, paranoid weird?” Sokka asked.

“No, not really. Almost—“ Zuko stopped, shaking his head. He wasn’t the most perceptive person in the world, and he was probably wrong. He busied himself with scrubbing the inside of a particularly tea-stained pot.

“What?” Sokka said, mediating his tone so that it was less strident, more wheedling. “What were you going to say?”

“I was gonna say that he looked sad, but that’s stupid,” Zuko shook his head again, but the words felt right. “Are we—you know, are we exclusive?” the words slipped out before Zuko really thought about them, and he didn’t know why the two concepts of monogamy and sad Jet were related in his mind.

“Um…” Sokka looked surprised, but covered it quickly with a grin, “I’m not seeing anyone else at the moment. Have something you wanna tell me? Is Jet honing in on my boyfriend?”

Zuko nearly choked on his own tongue. “Boyfriend?” he spluttered, accidentally splashing water onto his apron.

“I mean, yeah. Isn’t that what’s happening here?” Sokka crossed his arms over his chest, popping his hip a little in a way that reminded Zuko uncomfortably of Azula gearing up for a fight.

“Yes! I don’t seem mad, right? I’m just surprised. It was odd hearing it out loud like that,” he said. Sokka’s shoulders loosened, although he didn’t drop his arms. “And no, I’m not interested in anyone else. I think—well, I don’t know, I’m not good at _people_ ,” he paused long enough to let Sokka slip in a quiet, “Jet hardly counts as _people_ ,” before he continued, “but he was sort of flirting with me. It wasn’t pushy. More…” he searched for the right word and came up empty, so he changed tact. “He asked about you.”

“Yeah?” Sokka’s arms tightened further across his chest. “What did he want to know?”

“If you were any good in bed,” Zuko mumbled. He concentrated a little harder than was strictly warranted on the chipped edge of a saucer.

“And you _don’t_ think he was coming onto you?” Sokka snorted. “Well. What did you say?” he asked, very obviously trying to pretend he didn’t care about the answer.

“That you’re more than adequate,” Zuko said, shriveling up inside. He was sure that was how Jet had interpreted his strangled “yes”.

“’More than adequate’?” Sokka cocked a disapproving eyebrow at him. “Really?”

“No! Don’t be mad!” Zuko said hurriedly, drawing his hands out of the dishwater and steaming them dry. “I couldn’t just say in the middle of the street—“ he looked around the back room of the shop, but, as usual at this time of the night, it was just him and Sokka.

“Say what?” Sokka asked. His face was stormy, his bottom lip protruding just slightly in a way that made Zuko want to bite it.

“That you, you know,” Zuko sidled up to him, tugging at his securely interwoven arms.

“I don’t know,” Sokka said.

“You…well, you make me feel things I never…” Zuko looked down. Shit, he couldn’t say this out loud. Or to Sokka’s face. Or in his own fucking head. It was so _embarrassing_. “I, uh. I thought maybe there was something the matter with me? Like, that no one really did it for me. Or whatever. I was worried that being with someone like that wouldn’t feel good. And that I wouldn’t be any good at it. But Sokka…” he succeeded in pulling Sokka’s arms apart. Sokka’s hand slid up the outside of his arm automatically. “It’s _so good_ with you. It’s the hottest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. I think about it all the time. Whenever I’m not with you, all I can focus on is wanting you. And when I _am_ with you, it’s so hard to keep my hands off you.”

“Ok. Well,” Sokka began. Zuko finally managed to look him in the face, and became even more mortified at the amusement there. “I guess that makes me feel better. Best you’ve ever had, huh?”

“ _Only_ I’ve ever had,” Zuko corrected, “Don’t get smug.”

“You couldn’t resist me even when I am,” Sokka said, winding his arms around Zuko more firmly. “You can’t keep your hands off me, remember?”

“Whatever,” Zuko scowled, but his hands tightened on the back of Sokka’s neck, bringing his face up to meet him. Sokka shifted up onto the balls of his feet so that they overbalanced a bit, ending up back against the counter, Sokka’s hand catching the edge of the wood while Zuko’s grabbed at Sokka’s lower back for purchase. This only served to bring them closer together. Zuko used his greater height to bow Sokka back over the counter, lips ghosting along his neck.

“Kiss me, you fuck,” Sokka swore. Zuko laughed against his neck, pressing himself up against the full length of Sokka’s body so that he could feel exactly how frustrated Sokka was.

“Fine,” he said. “Just making sure you aren’t still thinking about Jet.”

“Fuck off,” Sokka said, grinding his hips ineffectually against Zuko’s leg. “I’m getting desperate.”

“I’ve seen you in worse shape,” Zuko muttered, swiping his tongue up the side of Sokka’s neck. He caught both of his hands as they wandered to his hips, reaching around to pin them behind Sokka’s back. When he looked up, Sokka’s pupils had dilated hugely.

 

***

 

“No, you really haven’t,” Sokka said, and lightening-quick he was free, reversing their positions like Zuko was no heavier than a rag doll, and it was Zuko whose hands were pinned against the counter.

“Hey!” Zuko panted, bucking against Sokka.

“Fairs fair,” Sokka grinned, holding Zuko still with one hand so that the other could reach lower, rubbing against Zuko’s dick through his apron and pants. “You’re only thinking about me, yeah? Or…” he shoved the apron out of the way, tugged the ties of Zuko’s pants free, “are you thinking about Jet?” Zuko’s eyes were shut, his face flushed, but he shook his head slightly. “Do you wish this was Jet?” Sokka asked, his voice low, his hand wrapped around Zuko’s cock. It pulsed in his hand when he said Jet’s name.

“No,” Zuko rasped.

“It’s ok if you do,” Sokka pushed, running his thumb up the underside of the head, over the tip. Zuko moaned, throaty and needy. Sokka would have expected this whole Jet thing to blow open his possessive streak a mile wide, but weirdly enough… “Do you get off to him?” Sokka gave his cock a good, long stroke, up and down and back up again slowly. “Do you jerk off and think about him?”

“No,” Zuko whispered. “Just you.”

“Have you ever wanted him?”

“Yes,” Zuko admitted, swallowing hard. His eyes snapped open, fastening on Sokka’s. They froze like that, something hot and tense crackling in the air between them. Zuko looked away first, blushing, and went on without Sokka having to encourage him. “On the ferry I nearly kissed him, and I spent the rest of the ride regretting it. And before I met you…” Sokka decided to gloss over the part where they’d met several times before, “I thought about him a lot.”

“Not anymore?”

“Not really.”

Sokka finally kissed him, slipping his tongue into the velvety interior of his mouth, pulling back and biting at his lower lip, diving back in for more. His hand picked up pace to match his mouth, and Zuko groaned unabashedly, his hands breaking free to grab onto Sokka’s shoulders. Sokka broke away to breath, and Zuko chased after his mouth, hips jerking instinctively, until they were panting together more than kissing. Sokka didn’t mind it; he didn’t think he had enough control of himself to kiss well at the moment, not with how Zuko’s cock was kicking in his hand, and Zuko was gasping the way he did when he got close. He became aware of the fact that he was rolling his own hips against Zuko’s thigh, but couldn’t really find it in himself to care or to stop. If he came in his pants, well, he’d been in more humiliating situations.

Zuko came first, with his teeth sunk into Sokka’s shoulder. The sharp pain of it tipped Sokka over the edge, and he thunked his head down onto Zuko’s shoulder as his orgasm tore through him. He stayed like that even after it was over, breathing heavily.

“You are such a mess,” Zuko laughed, pulling back to look at Sokka’s front. Sokka shook his head to indicate his lack of interest in that fact, which only make Zuko shake harder from laughter. Sokka remembered dimly how he used to wonder if Zuko _could_ laugh, back when he’d been chasing them all over the world to get Aang. Funny how it had been so long since he’d heard Zuko even mention him.

“Really. I have extra clothes,” Zuko said, shoving at Sokka’s shoulders.

“Yeah, good idea,” Sokka said, standing up properly. “Wait…” he pulled Zuko back in impulsively, fitting his lips over his again. This was a slow drag of teeth and tongue that left Zuko loose and pliant in his arms, his eyelids heavy with desire. “You just came, don’t look at me like that,” Sokka chuckled.

“Round 2?” Zuko offered, but began to do up his trousers anyway.

“New clothes,” Sokka reminded him.

“Right.” Zuko squeezed out from between him and the counter, stripped off his apron, and bent down to rummage around in a corner cabinet. Sokka fingered the edge of it and bit back another laugh, hoping that Zuko did the laundry around here, not Pao. Most of Zuko’s cum had ended up, fortuitously, on the apron and Sokka, so at least only one change of clothes was in order. Sokka gingerly stripped his tunic and pants off, only pausing when he realized Zuko was frozen staring at him.

“What?” he asked, thumbing the waistband of the shorts he wore under his trousers.

“I just…” Zuko shook himself, holding out the Earth Nation clothes. “I don’t see you like this that often. That first night, yeah, but…” he snuck another peak at Sokka as he pulled the shorts off and began to tug on the dark green trousers. “You’re hot. Don’t expect me not to notice.”

Sokka flushed this time. “Yeah, well you’re not that bad either,” he said, reaching out to pinch Zuko’s ass as he walked past.

“Hey!” Zuko said indignantly.

“Couldn’t resist,” Sokka said innocently. But now that they were standing here in the backroom, rearranging themselves from their hookup, Sokka felt something a little off in the air. With his hand on Zuko’s dick and no space to speak of between them, he’d let Jet in. Zuko hadn’t stopped him, but still… he’d dragged up someone from both of their pasts that Zuko had been interested in, who was ostensibly still into Zuko. And even if Zuko was telling the truth about not thinking about him anymore—and Sokka _trusted_ Zuko on that, scary as that concept might be—what about now? He was sure to be thinking about it, about him.

“You ok?” Zuko rounded Sokka again, handsy in the way he only was right after sex, and absentmindedly adjusted the ends of his belt for him.

“Yeah!” Sokka grinned, kissing Zuko one more time. “Just fine.”

But it wasn’t until he was back on the train to the Upper Ring that he wondered how true that was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I appreciate feedback of all kinds--you're the reason I write this ridiculousness. Also, I'm trying to fit things a little more into canon to round out the story, because I realized I've just straight up been ignoring it, and if I want to throw y'all some curveballs, that's gonna be hard to do without paying attention to what actually happened. You know, doing my due diligence. Making you sweat it out over whether or not Jet dies. The usual ;-)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look! More story! YAY!!!

He hadn’t counted on Katara. Which was saying something, considering the previous 14 years of his life. Sometimes he wondered if his poor judgment was really inborn, or if it was a self-sabotage technique he’d learned in response to Katara’s presence.

When he entered their house, she was standing just inside the door, arms crossed, foot tapping a harsh rhythm on the mats. He looked around, but Toph and Aang were conspicuously absent.

“I sent the others out,” Katara said, “not looking for _you_ ,” she spat when she saw his abashed expression, “just out. So I could talk to you one-on-one.”

Sokka stepped further into the house, trying to think of what to say and how, but Katara stopped him with a single look. She stalked up to him, jabbing him hard in the chest with her finger. “Do you even _care_ , Sokka??” she demanded. “You’re around during the day, but half of the time you disappear before dinner, and then spirits only know if you’ll be back before we’re all asleep, and I _know_ there has to be more going on than just some girl. So spit it out. Why the hell have you been running off all the time?”

“I do care!” Sokka protested. “Look, I wouldn’t have tried to make those stupid missing posters if I didn’t care!”

“It’s not just about Appa, Sokka!” Katara said, successfully diverted. “It’s about the rest of us, too! The team isn’t complete without you, and those posters,” she shot a scornful look at the crumpled mess of discarded drawings in the corner, “don’t have anything to do with that.”

“Yeah, I know, you had to have fancy ones made,” Sokka rolled his eyes, hands up in mock-surrender. “I see just how much my talent is appreciated around here.”

“Stop trying to sidetrack me!” Katara said, and Sokka dropped his hands in defeat. _Damn._

“I’m not!” he said weakly. “I’m just—“

There was a knock on the door, which was still ajar. It swung open to reveal a courier, carrying a small letter. He sketched a shallow bow, and said, in a crisp, pompous voice, “I have a letter for Master Sokka. From the, uh,” he sniffed distastefully, “Lower Ring.” He held it out like it might bite him.

Sokka shuffled sideways out of his sister’s reach and took it, shutting the door in the messenger’s face. _Classist prick_ he rationalized.

He ripped it open, ignoring Katara, who looked murderous.

 

_Sokka,_

_Uncle has been approached by a patron who wishes him to open a teashop in the Upper Ring. He is pleased, but I’m not sure whether me being closer to you is the best idea for secrecy. I don’t know what to do._

_Love,_

_Zuko_

 

Sokka stared at the note. Not so much for the content, but for those two words that Zuko had evidently scratched out quickly and thoughtlessly on the paper, judging by the number of ink blotches. “Love, Zuko”.

“What is it?” Katara asked, tearing him from his reverie.

“Oh!” he jumped, having forgotten her for a moment. “Jet is in town.” It slipped out before he even thought about it, but he knew he’d struck gold when her jaw dropped open in shock.

“Oh my gods, and that’s why…” she put a hand to her forehead, looking a little sick. “You didn’t want to upset me. Sokka, you know I… he and I… I mean. I’m over Jet. You were right about him the whole time! I know I don’t say it very often, but sometimes your people-skills are better than mine. But he’s not harming anyone, right?” She asked, eyes alight with concern, “If he is, we can stop that right now!”

“No! Nonono!” Sokka said, shaking his head wildly, and stuffing the letter into his pocket before Katara remembered it. “I’ve been keeping an eye on him,” he exaggerated. “And he seems like he’s just working and living like the other refugees. I think he’s still carrying on the Freedom Fighters, but that’s hard since there aren’t any firebenders in the city,” he worked hard not to stumble over the lie.

“Good,” Katara relaxed. “Thank you for saying something. You shouldn’t have to feel like you need to protect me, Sokka. I know you’re my big brother, but I can take care of myself just fine.”

“Yeah,” Sokka said, smiling hesitantly. “I know.”

“So now you don’t need to sneak off to the Lower Ring all the time!” Katara said cheerfully. “I know what’s going on now!”

“I mean, sort of…” Sokka said. “I also, you know, just like it down there. When I’m not tailing Jet.”

Katara narrowed her eyes again, “Are you visiting the…” she lowered her voice and hissed, “ _ladies of the night_? You know what I said about that!”

“Little sister,” Sokka puffed up his chest indignantly, “the day I pay for sex is the day you should hit me over the head with an icicle and put me in my grave.” Katara looked marginally comforted, although she screwed up her nose in distaste.

“I don’t think I need to hear anything more about you having _sex_ , Sokka,” she sniffed. “I’m not a prude, but there are some things a sister doesn’t need to know.”

“Fair enough,” Sokka shrugged, smiling blandly as he thought back to Zuko’s hoarse moans and the frantic jerk of his hips as Sokka’s hand closed around his cock. “Are we good?”

“Yes,” she said primly, then smiled, an open, genuine expression. “I love you, Sokka. I was just worried.”

“I know,” he wrapped an arm around her and held her in a snug embrace for a moment. “I’m not doing anything dumb, don’t worry. And I’ll try to be around more.”

“You better,” she said. “I miss you.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

 

***

 

He thought, later as he lay in his blankets and listened to the others snoring, that probably he shouldn’t be lying to her. He’d rarely lied about anything serious in his life, but this… on one hand it felt overwhelmingly personal, like the kind of thing that he might want to keep to himself anyway. And on the other, he knew how she’d react. She’d probably go berserk and kill Zuko herself, storming across all of Ba Sing Se until she found him and made him pay for all the hurt he’d caused them in the past. She wasn’t the kind of person to listen to his protests that Zuko had changed, that he was safe and sane and an ok person now.  She would want retribution.

He rolled over and stared toward the door, feeling restless. All he wanted was to see Zuko right now, stupid though that was. And Zuko would be here soon, he reminded himself, and then he wouldn’t have to be gone all night just to see him. Sure, bringing Zuko and Katara into closer quarters wasn’t a good idea, but maybe if they ran into each other in an innocuous setting, and Katara could see for herself how he’d changed…

Or maybe not. Feeling half asleep, but also too awake to lie still any longer, Sokka got up and padded toward the door. It was warm out, and he was comfortable dressed only in his loose sleeping pants. He tugged the door open silently and stepped out onto their front stoop.

Almost immediately, he felt a prickle across his skin. He dropped into a defensive stance, eyes scanning his surroundings, sure that he wasn’t alone. Everything had a swimming, dreamlike quality, and it wasn’t until he pinched himself that he was convinced he was truly awake.

A dark figure dropped from the roof of the porch, landing gracefully in front of him. The lithe form straightened, and in the dark he seemed to tower above Sokka.

“I forgot how fucking tall you are,” were the first words out of his mouth, but he was just out of it enough that he wasn’t too bothered by them.

Jet let out a surprised laugh, “That’s all? I thought I was gonna get punched.”

“Haven’t ruled it out,” Sokka said shortly, leaning up against a pillar. “You’ve been making passes at my boyfriend.”

“Jealous?” Jet grinned, and it was the glint of moonlight on a drawn blade. Or it might have been, if Jet’s voice hadn’t been just the tiniest bit off. Like he was trying too hard for his bravado.

“Of Li?” it came out before Sokka had time to think over what it implied. There was a beat of complete silence, when the relative quiet of the Upper Ring seemed magnified. Sokka could hear the rush of his own blood in his ears as his brain tried to find a way to take it back.

Jet cleared his throat, and it was such an insecure gesture, that Sokka forgot for a second that this was _Jet_ , who was a would-be mass murderer. This was just the city for fucking with his perceptions of people, apparently.

“You, uh, would be jealous of Li?” Jet said, raw shock in his tone.

“Whatever,” Sokka said defensively. “Not really. I’m tired. I’m not making any sense. I never make any sense, in fact, so, you know what, ignore me. I’m not here. You aren’t either. As far as we’re concerned, we never saw each other, and no harm done, ok?” He turned to go back inside, but a hand shot out and wrapped around his bare arm. It sent a jolt through him, and goose bumps erupted across his skin even though it wasn’t cold. Jet reeled him in closer, not letting go until they were facing each other again.

“I’ve been coming here just as much as I’ve been going to Li’s,” he said quietly.

Sokka wasn’t really sure what to make of that, or whether it was really true. He glanced up at the roof, half expecting to see several Dai Li agents scaling the peaks, but there was no one. He looked back at Jet, who’s face was only half illuminated by a far-off lantern. It looked genuine, more genuine than Sokka had ever seen it before.

“Why?” he heard himself ask.

The tip of Jet’s stupid straw bobbed up and down as he rolled it between his teeth before finally plucking it from his mouth. He held it between two of his fingers and thumb the way that Sokka had seen older men hold pipe stems, his thumb picking at the ragged edge where it’d been in his mouth. “I’m trying to figure that out myself,” Jet whispered. And then he dropped the straw, and his fingers caught Sokka by the chin, drawing his mouth up to his.

Sokka didn’t even have the presence of mind to squawk in outrage at the act. He was too busy trying not to succumb to the suddenly dizzying feeling of Jet’s hand cupping his cheek. The pad of this thumb, rougher and wider than Zuko’s, swept across Sokka’s cheekbone, and he shivered, leaning into it subtly. Jet’s lips were soft and warm and there was nothing presumptuous about the kiss, nothing too demanding. Not until Sokka tilted his head up and parted his lips, and suddenly they were fetching up against the pillar and Jet’s other hand was sinking into his hair and tugging him closer. Jet kissed with unhurried precision, his body against Sokka’s full of the kind of dangerous, deceptively languid strength that Sokka had been so initially distrustful of. But now it was intoxicating, and he felt again like he was in a dream, and had this been how Katara had felt when…

Wait.

He thumped his head against the pillar as he pulled back, thoroughly out of breath but unsure of how he’d gotten there, his hand fisted in Jet’s tunic. And oh, would you look at that, his other hand was settled pretty firmly on Jet’s ass, urging him closer. At least they’d kept some professional distance, cause Sokka was embarrassed to admit that even in his sleep-deprived state, he was already partially hard. It wasn’t _his_ fault that Jet was such a ridiculously good kisser.

But wait.

Yeah, it really was. His sister was in there, and oh gods, across the city there was Zuko, lying in bed, probably asleep, completely unaware of the fact that Sokka was kissing someone else behind his back.

Jet, who was watching him warily, but who hadn’t moved away, who had maybe even moved a little closer to see his face as he struggled with what had just happened.

“Why?” he finally croaked, echoing himself from earlier.

“I wanted to,” Jet rubbed his thumb back and forth across Sokka’s jaw, making his eyelids flutter closed, making him feel overwhelmed. Jet’s breath was warm and sweet on his face, his lips hovering just out of reach. “And I figured if you were gonna hit me, you already would have.”

“Fuckhead,” Sokka said, eloquently.

Jet let out another harsh laugh, more like a bark than Zuko’s surprisingly mellifluous rasp. Sokka squeezed his eyes shut harder, forcing himself to remember Zuko’s face. The guilt was starting to well up in his chest, and he realized that he felt entirely awake now.

“We can’t. I can’t. Um. I just…” he removed his hand from Jet’s ass hurriedly, placing both palms flat on Jet’s chest. He felt the heavy pulse of Jet’s heart, beating fast in response to his proximity. He pushed him away, his body entirely unhappy with the decision. “I’m not…You know I’m with…Li,” he said, almost fucking up the name swap.

“Yeah,” Jet backed away, face suddenly stricken. “Li. I didn’t—I’m not—Shit.” Sokka watched in fascination as Jet’s face crumpled. “Li. You love him and shit. Yeah. I’m not…” he stuttered, hands rising to pull at his own hair roughly, “I’m not looking to fuck that up for you guys. It’s great. You should… yeah. Be together. It’s good. We’re good. I’ll see you around.” And then he was gone, running off the other end of the porch and pulling himself up and around the edge of the roof.

Sokka stood there on the porch staring after him for a long time.

 

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, um, this got real intense real quick. So warnings for REALLY explicit sex, rough sex, etc. as well as my dearest apologies for myself and the sheer depravity I insist on depicting. The second I finished writing this I changed the rating to Explicit. But, to paraphrase another archive writer (who I don't know, but J sent a screenshot of this to me at some point) "I may be going to hell, but you're reading this, so see you there motherfuckers!"

Something about the night had Jet on edge. There was something crackling through the air, like the tense electricity of lightning just before a storm. He wanted to get out of the way before it struck, downing all the trees and destroying their hard earned home in its wake. But this was the city—not a tree in sight, and buildings that had withstood worse than a little wind and rain.

He hadn’t gone to Sokka’s intending to kiss him. That had been so far off his radar— _No it wasn’t_ a voice told him—ok, it had been so far off his radar that Sokka would kiss him _back_ that he wasn’t sure what had made him do it in the first place. Especially because the last thing he wanted was to fuck up Sokka and Li. They were the best thing that had ever happened to him. They gave him hope for the first time in forever. If a water tribesman and a firebender could fall in love… Well, they clearly weren’t looking to turn it into a ménage-a-trois, but he’d just _had_ to try, hadn’t he?

He snorted to himself. He was such a jackass. At least he’d gotten out of there when Sokka had rightfully rejected him.

But before he’d rejected him… Sokka was too good a kisser to have only been with one guy (or girl, he supposed), and it had taken a lot of self-control to keep his own libido in check. It had been a long time since he’d kissed anyone, and Sokka was so hot it hurt. So was Li, but he hadn’t gotten any indication from him that he was still interested. Certainly nothing from that one stilted, awkward interaction when Jet had caught him unawares outside his apartment. So why was he still here? No matter how many times he asked himself that, he never got the answer he wanted.

He spit out his straw, watching it twirl around and around before landing on the paving stones of the courtyard behind Li’s building. He and Sokka had returned a half hour before, stopping to chat at length with Mushi, who looked excitable and was dressed in his best Earth Nation robes, carrying a small overnight bag. He’d set off not long ago, waving genially to them on his way out, and had moved off in the direction of the Upper Ring. Clearly he had important business to be about tonight.

The other two were just talking, sitting at the low table eating dinner. Their voices were too quiet to make out what they were saying, and their heads were close together, making their expressions hard to see. When Sokka shifted uncomfortably, however, Li’s face came into view. He looked troubled, a little hurt maybe, and Jet felt the bottom of his stomach drop out. This had to be his fault.

He stiffened suddenly, peering around in the darkness for the source of his discomfort, but saw no one. The Dai Li must be out tonight, and he reminded himself that they always were. He’d gotten good at avoiding them a long time ago, but they still made him nervous. He didn’t want trouble with them, after all. He’d…heard things. Things that made him very glad he hadn’t accepted that invitation to visit Lake Laogai.

He looked back toward the window, satisfied that he wasn’t about to be jumped. Li had flattened a piece of paper on the table: that had to be one of those flyers he’d seen Aang and his friends distributing around the city. He frowned a little—why did Li care?

 

***

 

Iroh had been in good spirits when they’d gotten back to the apartment, standing at the wardrobe shoving a brand new green tunic into his worn overnight bag, humming jauntily to himself. Zuko had looked decidedly put out at the sight, so Sokka took it upon himself to ask what was going on.

“Yesterday I accepted a wealthy patron’s offer to open my own teashop in the Upper Ring,” he said seriously. “This is a dream come true for me, although my nephew is less than pleased.” Zuko shook his head weakly, as though trying to deny this, but gave up at a stern look from his uncle. “I have arranged to go see the premises this evening and supervise the furnishing of our new quarters. If you will be just fine alone, I was thinking of spending the night,” he winked ostentatiously at them, earning a blush from Zuko.

“I don’t need you encouraging him, Uncle,” Zuko said acerbically, which only made Iroh and Sokka roar with laughter.

“No, I think not. Have a pleasant evening, boys,” Iroh chuckled, striding to the door. “I will see you bright and early to move our things,” he said to Zuko, and shut the door behind him.

“Uh, dinner…?” Zuko asked, his voice subdued. Sokka nodded, and they sat down in companionable silence to eat. Sokka was quieter than usual, sure he had to talk to Zuko about the night before, but unsure how to go about it.

“What do you need to tell me, Sokka?” Zuko’s voice was resigned, but Sokka guessed that he couldn’t fail to notice that Sokka had been more reserved than usual while they were together.

“It’s...” Sokka set aside his empty bowl, “complicated. Or, no, maybe it isn’t. But I did something bad. You have every right to be mad at me.”

“I probably won’t be,” Zuko said evenly.

“Wait until you hear what I have to say before you decide,” Sokka said. He was tired from a day spent plotting with Aang and Katara and Toph—they’d had a weird one, begun with Aang yelling at Joo Dee, then a run in with Smellerbee and Longshot, and capped off by Katara getting it into her head that this mysterious Lake Laogai held all the answers to their problems. All he wanted was a mellow evening with Zuko, maybe some dinner, a pot of tea, lazy sex by the light of the cheap paper lanterns strung around their living room… But all day he’d had the weight of last night pressing heavy on his chest, and he wanted to be rid of it. At least if he was going to get murdered by the Dai Li he’d go with a clean conscious.

“Jet came to the house last night.”

“Oh?” Zuko took the last bite of his dinner, face carefully neutral.

“He kissed me,” Sokka looked hard at Zuko for a reaction, but he wasn’t looking at Sokka. His brow furrowed, and he stared into the bottom of his bowl. “I…I wasn’t really awake, but that isn’t an excuse. I kissed him back. I’m so sorry.”

Zuko didn’t say anything.

“You don’t—I mean—what are you thinking?” Sokka asked, his heart beating a rapid tattoo against his breastbone.

Zuko hummed noncommittally and set his bowl down. He looked at Sokka, and his face was oddly calm.

“It’s ok.”

Sokka thought he surely must have heard wrong, “I’m sorry-what?”

“I don’t mind,” Zuko said, tracing the grain of the wooden table with a long, elegant finger. “It’s sort of… well,” he ducked his head, looking embarrassed. “It’s sort of hot,” he whispered. “I know we said we were exclusive and everything, but I swear I don’t mind. It’s not like you slept with him. And it sounds like you, you know, stopped before anything else happened. It isn’t your fault he kissed you first.”

“I—“ Sokka shook his head. “I wasn’t expecting this reaction,” he said.

“Imagine how I feel,” Zuko smiled slightly. “I didn’t think I’d be having this reaction either.”

“All right then,” Sokka smoothed his hands down his thighs, feeling entirely wrong footed, like he’d accidentally missed a step going down the stairs. All this time geared up for a massive fight, maybe even a break up, and here was Zuko acting like everything was fine. Boys were strange, he decided.

“But anyway,” Zuko waved his hand through the air in a dismissal of their previous conversation, “I have to talk to you about something.” He pulled a folded up piece of paper out of his pocket and pulled it open, shifting so he was sitting closer to Sokka. Sokka looked at it in confusion: he was struggling to shift gears from _I sort of accidentally made out with someone else_ to _Here’s a flyer about your friend’s missing sky bison_. He was sure he’d mentioned to Zuko at some point that they were in Ba Sing Se to look for Appa, but Zuko hadn’t asked many questions, and he hadn’t volunteered much information. It was like if they didn’t mention his sister, the Avatar, or the war, then they could pretend they didn’t exist inside this little bubble of theirs.

“You’ve been looking for the sky bison?” Zuko asked, then barely waited for Sokka’s nod before plowing on, “Do you, you know, need help?”

“What?”

“I just thought,” Zuko cleared his throat, “maybe I could help. Or. I don’t know. I thought something.”

“No!” Sokka interjected, so quickly that Zuko looked up at him, frowning, hurt plain on his face. “No, it’s not that I don’t _want_ your help,” Sokka said. “It’s just that it’s dangerous, and my sister is so set on hating you, and I just don’t know if this is the best way to break it to her. Do you get it?”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course I do,” Zuko said, looking a little less pained. “I’ll be in the Upper Ring soon, though. We can’t keep it a secret forever—“ _if we’re going to stay together_ hung unspoken in the air between them. They had avoided that so far—what was going to happen when they found Appa and left, how they’d break the news to Katara, whether Zuko intended to carry on his crazy mission to regain his honor. Thinking back on it, Sokka honestly wasn’t sure what the hell they’d been talking about this whole time, but surely it had to be something. He knew a lot about how Zuko had grown up, about what he liked and didn’t like, about where is erogenous zones could be found…

Zuko flattened the poster out on the table between them, “You have a plan?”

“Sort of,” Sokka grimaced. “It’s mostly ‘let’s try not to get killed’. I think we’re gonna go from there.”

“Brilliant,” Zuko rolled his eyes. “That’s served you well in the past?”

“Not dead yet,” Sokka said brightly, and Zuko huffed out a low laugh.

“True,” he ceded.

They fell silent for a few minutes, just looking at each other.

“Should we talk about it?” Sokka asked finally. They both knew what he meant.

Zuko looked pensively at his hands for a few minutes, then shook his head, “Not tonight. Tonight I just want,” he reached out and took hold of Sokka’s hand, interlacing their fingers, “this. I’m so tired of the rest of it.”

“Yeah,” Sokka breathed, skimming back Zuko’s bangs with his free hand. Zuko closed his eyes and leaned into his touch. The decision-making could wait. He rolled forward onto his knees and kissed Zuko gently, nudging his knees apart with his own until they were sitting half in each other’s laps. Zuko released his hand and pulled his shirt over his head, sucking in a breath when Sokka’s hand ran feather-light up his spine.

“Maybe,” he broke away, breathing heavy, his eyes dark, “we should get rough tonight? I want,” he rested his forehead against Sokka’s, eyes downcast so that his long lashes cast shadows across the tops of his cheeks, “you to leave marks. On me. If you want.”

Sokka swallowed hard, _very_ turned on by the idea. Especially because he had a horrible feeling that tonight was the end of something. That maybe this was going to be the last time for a long time. He was supposed to be going to Lake Laogai tonight, and who knew what was going to happen after that. He wanted to leave Zuko something to remember him by if it all went south.

He nodded.

 

***

And now they were making out again. Jet would almost be bored by the sight at this point if he weren’t so helplessly into it. And if he wasn’t feeling so fucking keyed up tonight.

At least this meant he hadn’t broken them up, though. He wanted this for them in a weird way. Like if they were happily together something was going right in the world. Balance was being maintained somehow.

There was a soft rustle from somewhere off to his left.

He froze, turning his head almost imperceptibly to the side. Just at the edge of his range of motion he saw a lone figure crouched low on a neighboring roof. The Dai Li.

He held completely still, hoping that they would be gone soon. The person didn’t seem to have seen him, but the last thing he wanted was to be arrested tonight. Maybe if they just left… But then another figure crept over the edge of the roof. They appeared to be motioning to each other silently, and then they crawled over the side of the building, heading _towards_ him. Shit.

Now that they were out of his sight, though, he reminded himself that they couldn’t see him either. Making a split second decision, he straightened as much as he could and backed up, running at full speed for the edge of the roof. He got a good spring off the side, landing with a soft _whump_ on the tiles of the next one, barely stopping long enough to secure his footing before he sprinted its length and soar onto Li’s apartment building. He paused there, swiveling to get a good look at where the Dai Li agents had disappeared.

They were back, and on the roof opposite him. They didn’t seem to be paying any attention to the little scene undoubtedly still unfolding below him—they probably saw the same every night, he thought—but they were definitely looking for something. _Someone_ his brain told him. _Me?_ The thought sparked a flare of panic inside of him, and he did the only thing he could think of to escape: dropping in through Li’s open window.

 

***

On the list of directions he had expected the evening to take, Zuko hadn’t included “Jet bursting in in the middle of foreplay”. As it was, he felt he was handling the situation fairly well. And by that, he meant sitting dumbstruck on the floor while Jet rolled up onto his feet and ran to slam their shutters shut behind him. He looked over at Sokka, whose mouth was hanging open, his lips still slick and little puffy, a dark half-crescent forming on the bottom one from where Zuko had bit him. Zuko had the strange and inappropriate desire to reach out and grab him again—keep kissing him even if they acquired an entire live audience and the building caught on fire. And then was washed away in a flood caused by an earthquake and—

But oh yeah. Jet was now turning on them, his usually unflappable exterior thoroughly ruined. His eyes widened in horror as he took them in, and he turned to the window as though to jump back through it. Seeing as he’d just shut them all in together, however, he just kept turning, until he was staring back at them again. He raised one hand in a feeble attempt at a greeting.

“Hi,” he croaked.

“Uh…” Sokka looked back over at Zuko, nonplussed. Zuko looked over at Jet. Jet looked at Sokka.

Sokka burst into laughter.

Jet and Zuko both stared at him in befuddlement. He had disentangled himself from Zuko’s legs and was literally rolling around on the floor mats, his hair a mess, his laughter slightly hysterical. Zuko looked helplessly at Jet, but he was still watching Sokka losing his _motherfucking shit_ on the floor in front of them.

Zuko was suddenly struck by the thought that if it weren’t for the laughter, this would definitely be the start of one of the more sordid fantasies he’d been entertaining over the past 48 hours. He beat the thought back soundly. Now was not the time. Obviously Jet had been a) spying on them and b) was running from something, because there was no way he would just interrupt them on a whim. Particularly since he looked so mortified now, standing in Zuko’s apartment.

“Um, are you—“ Zuko looked at Jet, who seemed completely at a loss for words. “Are you ok?”

“Wha—?” Jet looked wildly around behind him at the closed windows again, then back at Sokka, then back at Zuko. “I—what? I’m fine. Just…” he trailed off. Sokka was gradually getting a hold of himself, and he sat up, wiping his eyes and hiccupping slightly. “You know, the Dai Li’s on your roof, and I. Um. Had to. You know. Hide.”

“Right,” Zuko said, patting Sokka firmly on the back as he struggled to control his hiccups. “And before that?”

“Well, I was, uh, on the roof,” Jet colored lightly. “I don’t think they saw me though. Or you guys.”

“But you did,” Zuko said pointedly. Sokka doubled over again.

“Well yeah. I’ve seen you.”

“Ah. Before tonight, too?” Zuko fixed him with a hard look, daring him to lie to his face. Inside he was on fire, though, and that fire was rapidly, and embarrassingly, translating itself to arousal. He hadn’t known before _right this second_ that he was perfectly ok with being watched while he had sex. _You learn something new every day_ he thought ruefully.

“Um,” Jet went immobile, like a fox out in the open just realizing it had been spotted. Only his eyes whipped around the room, searching for a way out of this extraordinarily uncomfortable situation. “Yes?”

“Ok,” Zuko threw an arm around Sokka’s shaking shoulders, pulling him closer. Sure enough, his proximity was all it took to calm Sokka down enough for him to collect himself. _Like magic_ he mused. He’d only noticed just how much Sokka responded to physicality in the last few days, and it was incredibly useful.

Jet had apparently also noticed it, because his eyes tracked every motion exchanged between them. His tongue darted out to lick his lips, and Zuko watched in fascination as it swiped across his full lower lip. Then his eyes dropped to Zuko’s lap, and all that registered was blatant shock.

 _Right_ Zuko thought. He’d been pretty hard when Jet had decided to _drop_ by—he cringed at the bad joke even inside his own head—and it had definitely come back with a vengeance at the thought of Jet watching them.

He turned to Sokka for help, but Sokka had refocused on Jet. Jet’s eyes snapped up to Zuko’s face, then just as quickly to Sokka’s. He looked like he was hoping Sokka would provide him with some kind of guidance, and Zuko couldn’t say that he wasn’t hoping for the same.

Sokka looked back and forth between the two of them and shrugged as if to say _What do you want me to do about it?_ Zuko rolled his eyes at him, and the moment broke. Jet grinned suddenly from ear to ear, and his entire stance loosened.

“You told him?” he asked conversationally.

“Couldn’t not,” Sokka shrugged again.

“He wasn’t mad?” Jet asked. “I figured if I’d really fucked up, you wouldn’t be, you know,” he gestured at them.

“He was ok with it,” Sokka said.

“Oh…” Jet’s eyes ran back up and down Zuko again. “Was he?”

Abruptly the air was tense again.

“Yeah, he was,” Sokka said, and something in his voice made Zuko’s gaze break away from Jet once more to stare at Sokka. He turned too, and his eyes met Zuko’s. He held them as he leaned in, the blue burning more fiercely than Azula’s lightning, and then he ducked down. His tongue flicked out and licked deliberately from one end of Zuko’s collarbone to the other, fastening briefly on the bony nub of his shoulder before he pulled away. Zuko was completely still, his breath shallow and rapid, but he heard Jet take a short, sharp breath in response. He glanced over at him just in time to see his hips roll slightly, like he wanted to readjust himself, and when he looked down, Sokka had very clearly noticed the same thing.

Sokka straightened a little, turned back to Zuko, and kissed him on the jaw, running the tip of his nose along the line of it, biting softly at his ear. “Want it?” he whispered. His hot breath made Zuko shiver, and his eyes met Jet’s over Sokka’s shoulder. He was so hard it was hard to think. “Me and him? You could have both of us,” his hand stroked up Zuko’s shoulder blade. “It’s up to you. Whatever you want,” he dropped his mouth to Zuko’s neck, sucking a bruise there possessively, his hands wandering lower.

“Yes,” Zuko breathed, nodding frantically against the top of Sokka’s head.

“Thank fuck,” Sokka gasped, and then he was gone. Zuko blinked stupidly over at Jet, who’s eyes had gotten even wider, if such a thing was possible. He was watching Sokka disbelievingly. Zuko was fairly certain that if he were in Jet’s position he would look exactly the same: Sokka had gotten up and was unwinding Jet’s belt. He finally got it loose enough to push Jet’s outer shirt off his shoulders, before standing up fully to kiss him, letting Jet get it the rest of the way off.

Zuko’s mouth went completely dry. Was this what it looked like when they…? Jet was also tall, maybe taller than him, and Sokka looked small but not fragile, pressing up against Jet in a way that conveyed who was really in charge. Jet was kissing him slow and intense, trying distractedly to get his clothes off without losing a beat. Zuko had to take pity on him, and stood up to help. He couldn’t help being amused by the way he jumped when Zuko’s hands suddenly appeared, reaching around to undo his leg wraps, untie his waistband, unbuckle his battered armor. It all ended up in a pile at their feet, and Zuko felt a vein of something hot and bitter and _wild_ break open in his stomach, like fire but more all consuming. He couldn’t get his hands on Jet fast enough, and he pressed wet open-mouthed kisses on his bare back, grinning against his skin when Jet moaned into Sokka’s mouth.

Sokka broke away from him, hands reaching back and finding Zuko. His voice was hoarse and little strangled when he asked, “What should we do with him?” Jet let out a huff of a laugh, his head back, his own tone still incredulous.

“Anything you want,” he said. “Please.”

Zuko dipped his head around and under Jet’s elbow to lock eyes with Sokka. He couldn’t stop a laugh from slipping out at the dark glee all over Sokka’s face. “You’re the mastermind,” he pointed out. He ran a hand up Jet’s thigh from behind, wrapping his hand around the base of Jet’s cock. Jet gasped but held still, hands fisting in Sokka’s shirt. “Just,” his voice cracked a little, “I need you to fuck me.”

“Fuck,” Jet breathed. His eyes slid closed and he swayed back into Zuko, then forward into Sokka.

“With pleasure,” Sokka smiled rakishly. “But first,” he reached back to yank his tunic over his head, stood to pull off his pants, and, on an after thought, let his hair out of its wolf tail.

“Ready, princess?” Zuko snorted, trying to ignore the way his own erection jumped at the sight of Sokka’s hair brushing the tops of his high cheekbones.

“Oh, I’m the princess now?” Sokka teased lightly, pressing himself back against Jet, who gritted his teeth against a groan. “You like that?” he asked quietly, directing the question to Jet. Zuko dropped back to watch them, letting go of Jet’s cock so it could slide against Sokka’s.

Jet nodded, dark eyes opening again. He ran a hand over Sokka’s cheek, and Zuko was surprised by how tender the gesture was. A flame of jealousy flared to life in his chest, but he quashed it. He wanted them so much it was a dull throb in his chest, in his cock, in his hands twitching with the effort of not jumping them both right then. He held back, waiting for Sokka’s instruction.

“Ok,” Sokka turned his head a little to the side, letting Jet kiss a soft line up his neck, over his jaw, to his temple. “Li, on your hands and knees.” For a second Zuko was confused—Sokka had never called him anything but his real name in bed, but then he remembered. Jet didn’t know. Couldn’t know.

And then desire took over and he stopped caring about anything.

 

***

Jet was so hard, and all of his restraint was currently being put to the test. The thing was that he was a talker in bed. He always had been, and the urge to tell Li and Sokka just how good they looked right now was strong. But he held back, not sure what they were into yet.

It was rapidly becoming clear, though.

Li was on his hands and knees, and Sokka gave Jet one last long, bruising kiss before he dropped to his knees himself, running a hand up and down Li’s back. His fingers twined into Li’s hair and gave a sharp tug, making Li groan and grind back against him, biting his own lip hard.

Oh, so that’s how it was.

“Jet,” Sokka said, his tone so full of promise that Jet’s eyes nearly rolled back in his head, “you wanna fuck me?”

“God yes.”

“Good.”

 

***

It quickly transpired that Jet talked dirty. Somewhere between Sokka sliding easily into Zuko and bending over just enough for Jet to use his greater height to get up behind him and _Holy shit, there he is_ , a veritable waterfall of filth spilled out of Jet’s mouth.

Somehow the reality of Jet fingering him didn’t hit him until it was happening, and then it was all he could do to stay inside of Zuko even as his head snapped back and landed somewhere on Jet’s shoulder. Jet laughed a little, tipping forward to kiss his shoulder.

“You look so fucking hot, gonna fuck you so hard,” he murmured, and Zuko convulsed around Sokka’s cock, pushing back onto him impatiently. Sokka grabbed hold of his hips to keep him still while Jet slid one finger in, then another, pressing hard at his p-spot until he was seeing stars. “Tell me you want it, Sokka,” Jet’s voice was in his ear, so hot and this was so dirty, but shit, he wanted it so much.

“Fuck me, fuck me now, oh _gods_ ,” he practically sobbed. “Hold on Li, I just, wait, he’s…” he wasn’t sure how to dictate this to Zuko so that he could enjoy it too, wasn’t sure when he’d become the crux of this thing after it was Zuko who they’d both been attracted to, but he also wasn’t sure he cared, now that push was coming to shove. Because “shove” sort of covered what was happening behind him right now.

“Oh fuck,” he swore, collapsing against Zuko’s back as Jet stretched him to capacity, sheathing himself in one smooth motion. They all stayed still, holding each other, while Sokka got used to it. It was _a lot_ , the sensation of Jet filling him out while he was buried in Zuko, the feel of slick, tight heat around him and inside him at the same time.

“He’s so tight, Li, _fuck_ ,” Jet said brokenly. “You should feel him, he feels so good, he’s so hot. I can’t even, I can’t not fuck him, shit,” his hands grabbed at Sokka’s thighs, then slid up his torso, feeling out his abs, his pecs, back down so that they rested on Zuko’s ass where it was flush against his hips. He stopped there, hands splayed across Zuko’s ass, thumbs spreading him a little more, and the sight made Sokka move without thinking, drawing back to fuck Zuko while Jet held him steady. This inadvertently drove Jet deeper, and Sokka choked on his yell, rolling his hips inelegantly.

Jet began to move in earnest, hips starting to thrust even as he kept hold of Zuko’s hips, setting both of their paces so that they moved in one sinuous rhythm, Zuko getting carried along for the ride. Jet propped his chin on Sokka’s shoulder, watching Zuko beneath them.

“You look too good, Li, wish your dick was in me,” he babbled, “wanna suck it, god, wanted to suck it for so long, you have no idea.” Zuko moaned desperately, driving his hips back to meet Sokka on the upstroke, the impact enough to make Sokka grit his teeth and fall forward again, bracing himself over Zuko to get deeper. “You want it harder? Fuck yeah,” Jet’s fingers yanked Sokka’s head back, kissed him sloppily while they fucked, the other hand leaving smudgey bruises on Zuko’s hips, on his thighs, matching the ones Sokka was pressing into both of them. “The way you look together,” he whispered against Sokka’s lips, “so hot for you.”

“You jerk off to us?” Zuko gasped, one of the hands holding him up disappearing under him. Sokka swallowed dryly as it began to work Zuko’s cock.

“Fuck yes.”

“Nngh, yes, gods,” Zuko’s head drooped, his forehead landing on his arm as he braced himself against the onslaught, his back arching to push his ass back against Sokka.

“Come on Li, _come_ ,” Jet demanded, but it was Sokka who came first, hips thrusting wildly, cock slipping out to smack wetly as he came all over Zuko’s ass and back. Jet groaned at the sight, using the hand in Sokka’s hair to force him forward on top of Zuko so he could ram himself home, fucking him frantically until he was coming inside of him, screaming loud enough to wake the block. Zuko, still crammed beneath them, was working himself furiously, hand a blur, rosy head of his cock disappearing and reappearing over and over again.

“Fuckfuck _FUCK_ ,” Jet swore, pulling out and reaching for Zuko, who rolled over, his hair plastered to his head with sweat. He didn’t resist as Jet peeled his hand off his cock and took him into his mouth, his throat flexing as he swallowed him to the base, nose brushing stiff curls before he bobbed back up again. He only managed it a few times before Zuko was coming in his mouth. Jet pulled back, jerking him off into his mouth, and Sokka watched, mesmerized, as Jet swallowed around Zuko’s head, Zuko’s hand fisted hard in his hair. Cum spilled over onto his hand, but Jet didn’t seem to care, fisting his cock the whole time.

And then it was over, all of them sprawled out on the ground, completely spent. The only sound was harsh breaths sawing out of heaving chests, until…

“I think I need to work out more,” Sokka muttered, and Zuko let out an incredulous giggle, and Jet’s raucous laugh filled the room, and before he knew it they were all spooned up together on Zuko’s bedroll. The last thought Sokka had before he fell asleep was that he was so ridiculously glad that Iroh had spent the night in the Upper Ring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am profoundly grateful my grandmother doesn’t know what the archive is. Plot coming next so that I can try to make myself feel better about what I’ve just done. I’m going to sit in a corner to think about my choices now. 
> 
>  
> 
> So, uh, typos. Yeah. If you find those. Let me know.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here comes some plot! This takes place during the Lake Laogai and Earth King episodes, with plenty of canon compliance in there. Don't worry, the twists and turns are still to come *rubs hands together evilly*
> 
> P.S. I sort of hate writing stuff that we definitely already saw on the show, so that accounts for why it's a bit choppy and shorter than usual. I promise I'll take more time on parts that don't correspond to actual events in the show, which are really the good parts anyway, right? ;-)
> 
> P.P.S. For the first time I think it's also important to note that some of this dialogue comes straight from the show, so it is NOT my own original work in that regard. This might continue to some extent for a few more chapters, but I don't like doing it, and so it won't be common.

Sokka only slept for a little while before rousing himself to go. He felt like kind of an asshole as he got dressed silently in the dark and crept out of the apartment, but he had places to be. And a top-secret government compound to infiltrate.

 

***

Jet sat up once Sokka had closed the door behind him. He’d yanked his pants and undershirt back on before lying down next to Li, and he dressed quickly, slipping out to follow Sokka. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but knowing anything at all about Sokka, he was sure he wouldn’t have left if it wasn’t for something important. He’d never been very good at reining in his curiosity.

 

***

Zuko woke up alone in his bed, hands reaching instinctively to either side, expecting to find at least one of the two warm bodies he’d gone to sleep with. He wasn’t surprised to find Jet gone, but it wasn’t until he remembered Sokka’s plans to go find Appa that he realized where he must have gone too. He rolled over and to his feet, determination building. He didn’t have to help them as Zuko, but he did want to help them. Well, help Sokka. No matter what that meant for his future.

 

***

Katara relaxed when she saw Sokka enter the house. The rest of them had been geared up and waiting for him for a while now. She was much less enthused to see Jet trailing along behind him, although Smellerbee and Longshot whooped at the sight.

“You brought _him_?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest and giving Jet her most disdainful glare.

Sokka looked around in bewilderment and jumped when he saw Jet standing just behind him.

“Not on _purpose_ ,” he grumbled, glaring at him too. “He must have followed me here.”

“I’ve reformed, Katara,” Jet said, widening his eyes in what Katara figured must be an attempt at innocence. “I just want to help.”

“Do you believe him?” Katara fixed her gaze on Sokka, who was staring at Jet. The look on his face was decidedly strange, but Katara couldn’t place it.

“Wha—?” Sokka shook his head and refocused on Katara. “Oh, yeah, I do. I think I do. I mean, he can’t make this any worse.”

“If you're done with your wussy bullshit, can we get moving?” Toph complained loudly. “I wanna fuck up some bad guys.”

 

***

Getting information out of the Dai Li agent had been ridiculously easy, Zuko thought. He’d expected them to be much tougher. Maybe they should up their recruitment standards.

He ran lightly along the top of a roof, reveling in the feeling of weightlessness as he soared from one roof to another across the city toward Lake Laogai. He’d missed being the Blue Spirit, missed the fresh air and the breeze so at odds with the crush of humanity teeming in the city below.

He felt free.

 

***

Sokka pretty rapidly realized that he wasn’t a fan of Lake Laogai, and that it sure as shit wasn’t some sort of royal resort. They passed what felt like miles of cells, only occasionally seeing signs of other people; each time they hid as quickly as possible, although Katara couldn’t contain her little gasp of horror at the chamber of brainwashed Joo Dees. They wound their way further and further into the labyrinth, Jet and his gang leading the way, until they came to a door that was set apart from all of the others.

It swung open, and they popped their heads inside, expectation and excitement lighting up Aang’s round face.

But the only thing on the other side of the door was Long Fen.

 

***

Zuko heaved the door to, stealing into the chamber beyond. There was a great hulking form chained to the floor, and he hastened towards it. Appa raised his head slightly as he neared, and there was a great rattling clatter as he tried to shift, but his legs were chained to iron pegs driven deep into the rock of the room’s floor. He settled for growling at Zuko as he drew nearer, a huge rumbling roar that reverberated around the room.

The door opened suddenly behind him, and he whipped around, dropping into a crouch.

“Uncle?” he nearly dropped his dao. Iroh was sidling into the room.

“So, the Blue Spirit,” he said dryly, “I wonder who could be behind that mask.”

Zuko sighed and reached back to untie his mask, “What are you doing here?”

“I was just about to ask you the same thing,” Iroh raised his eyebrows. “What do you plan to do now that you've found the Avatar's bison? Keep him locked in our new apartment? Should I go put on a pot of tea for him?”

“It’s not what you think, Uncle, we just have to get out of here,” Zuko hissed.

“And then what?! You never think these things through!” Iroh said, pointing at him accusingly. He was easily the most worked up that Zuko had ever seen him. He threw his mask and swords to the ground, trying to find the words to explain to him that it wasn’t what he assumed, that maybe Zuko wasn’t doing this just for himself. He turned back to the bison. Or maybe he was. He didn’t really know anymore.

 

***

Jet and Aang had gone running after Long Fen a few minutes before, and Sokka and the rest of the group pursued, tracking them through the tunnels until they found the cell they’d retreated to. Long Fen was already gone, but Aang was standing next to Jet, who was staring at an empty pipe protruding from the wall.

“He got away,” he said unnecessarily, waving a hook toward the exit. “He tried to do his weird brainwashing bullshit on me, but,” he shrugged like it was no big deal, “obviously he didn’t know who he was dealing with.” Smellerbee and Longshot laughed, and Katara rolled her eyes at his cockiness. Sokka couldn’t help but crack a smile, remembering the much less confident Jet of earlier in the night. Well, less confident until the clothes came off. He shook himself: now was not the time for reliving their sexcapades.

They turned tail, beating a hasty retreat to the passage outside, only coming to a stop when Aang held up a hand and pointed at an open door nearby.

“Appa’s gone! Long Fen beat us here,” Aang wailed.

Sokka squared his shoulders, dragging Aang from the empty room, “If we keep moving, maybe we can catch up with them!”

 

***

“You did the right thing, nephew,” Iroh said heavily, resting a hand on Zuko’s shoulder. He stared down at the mask in his hands, thinking back to all of the times he had worn it, to all the significance it held for him. In a way, losing the mask would mean losing a piece of himself, a part of the freedom he cherished when he put it on and became nothing more than another spirit roaming the Earth.

His uncle sensed his hesitation and lowered his voice gently, “Leave it behind.”

 

***

Soaring away on Appa had never felt so good. After a nice refreshing break during which they squabbled just like old times, they finally managed to work out that visiting the Earth King was the right thing to do (“Toldja,” Sokka said smugly to Toph).

After that Sokka couldn’t quite bring himself to give a shit about details, because he had a letter about his father.

His father.

Sokka hadn’t let himself spend a lot of time missing him over the course of their adventures, although he’d half hoped that they’d run into him eventually. It wasn’t until the opportunity was upon him that he realized just how much he wanted to see him.

But there was one thing to do before he left.

“Mushi?” What felt like days later, he was finally back at Zuko’s apartment, knocking on the door. “Li?”

The door opened just a crack, enough for a sliver of Iroh’s worried face to appear. “Sokka?” he asked, surprised. “Are you here to see my nephew?”

“Yes,” he said, a little out of breath, “I need to say goodbye.”

“Goodbye?” Iroh’s eyebrows shot toward his hairline, and he stepped back, opening the door fully. “I am afraid that my nephew is not well. He made a great decision earlier,” Iroh’s chest puffed up with pride, and his voice took on a carrying tone, “that I believe has changed his destiny for the better. He must bear through it to become the man he is meant to be.”

Sokka was barely paying attention to Iroh’s nonsense, though. Zuko was pale and feverish, sweating through his blankets as he twisted on his bedroll, muttering to himself.

“Zuko,” he dropped to his side, petting back his sweaty bangs. Zuko’s eyes opened a fraction, focusing vaguely on Sokka’s face.

“Sokka?” he croaked, his fingers reaching up to stroke feebly across Sokka’s cheek. Sokka caught them and held them there. He was burning up. “I’m dreaming,” he said, turning his face away and closing his eyes again. “You aren’t here. I was wrong.”

“What’s the matter with him?” Sokka rounded on Iroh. “What’s he talking about?”

“His mind and body are at war, Sokka,” Iroh shook his head. “There is nothing to do but wait. This sickness will pass.”

“I can’t—“ Sokka shook his head, resting his hand on Zuko’s chest. He could feel his heartbeat thrumming too fast under his palm. “I can’t stay, but…” _what kind of boyfriend am I if I leave?_

“He would understand,” Iroh said gravely. “Whatever is drawing you away must be of great consequence. Do not worry. I will take good care of him.”

Sokka stood up and looked him squarely in the face. Understanding seemed to pass between them as they stood facing one another, and Sokka eventually held out a hand to the older man. “I know you will.” Iroh pulled him into a bone-crushing hug, then turned and gave him a gentle push toward the door.

“I will see you again soon, Sokka,” he nodded. “Don’t worry.”

“Thanks,” Sokka said, reaching for the door. He cast one last look over at Zuko, then turned to go, trying to think of his father and the other tribesman waiting for him at Chameleon Bay. Why was walking away still so hard?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Jet isn't dead... yet >:-)
> 
> Also, I might be taking a little time off from the Archive because finals are upon me, but I'll be back eventually. Thought I'd give you a little closure in some regards before I did, though, so that's why I'm posting this chapter before I peace out.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry to leave you guys hanging for such a protracted period of time... thanks for waiting for me! 
> 
> So this chapter isn't that long, but it's still sort of a doozy, so hold onto your seats kids, cause shit's about to get REAL. 
> 
> Don't hate me.

“Toph, you go with Iroh to warn the Earth King! Jet, Aang, let’s go get Zu—I mean, Katara!”

In retrospect, that hadn’t been Sokka’s finest moment, but hearing that both his sister _and_ his boyfriend had been imprisoned would do that to a guy. Make him lose it, and make him begin to seriously question his judgment and priorities. _Sisters before misters_ he reminded himself, and almost started laughing hysterically. Aang, earthbending them a tunnel while Jet held a torch for light, looked over at him strangely but didn’t say anything. Sometimes Sokka thought Aang was just a little too perceptive for his own good.

The second the rock gave a final rumbling crash and they all spilled out into the chamber, Sokka was off like a shot. In what could hardly be called his finest moment (for too many reasons to count) he catapulted himself forward, nearly ripping off Katara’s arm. He didn’t stop to give any thought to why his sister was standing suspiciously close to Zuko, why their eyes were locked or why Aang was practically boiling in his shoes with jealousy. He only had eyes for one person.

“Zuko!” he barreled into him, forcing him way off balance. He probably would have knocked him over if Jet hadn’t let out an excited whoop and come rocketing at them from the other direction so that they were caught in a strange and profoundly gay group hug.

“I’m ok, Sokka,” came Zuko’s voice from somewhere deep in the tangle of limbs. He sounded a little choked, maybe from whatever had been happening before, or maybe from actual strangulation. Sokka didn’t really know or care; he was overcome that Zuko was alive and awake and not lying in an Earth Kingdom prison pit or wracked with fever in his apartment.

“Are you sure?” It was Jet’s worried voice that finally made Sokka let go. He looked over at him with, he was sure, an expression of such delighted incredulity that Jet also dropped Zuko and glared at him.

“One butt-fuck and you’re practically in love! I should have slept with him months ago,” Sokka crowed to Zuko, slapping his own thigh at the ridiculousness. Jet was still scowling, but his face was also turning a telltale shade of red.

“Am not,” he sulked. “And why did no one tell me Li was actually Zuko?”

Sokka spluttered indignantly, “Because you would have ratted him out to the Dai Li, you—“

“Um, Sokka,” Zuko said quietly. He wasn’t focusing on their bickering, his eyes trained somewhere over Sokka’s shoulder.

Sokka gradually felt silent, an unpleasant prickling on the back of his neck warning him that all was definitely not right in his word.

“Sokka,” Zuko repeated. His face was very, very white. Sokka made a move to touch him, but he flinched away.

 _Right_ Sokka closed his eyes to tamp down on the impending panic. _I have just fucked up epically_.

“What. The. Hell.” Katara’s face was flinty. “Is going on here?” she gritted out. “What the FUCK are they talking about?” Sokka looked at her beseechingly. “Are they _implying_ ,” Katara said, “that you _slept_ with Zuko? _And_ with Jet? _And at the same time?_ ”

“I think it was more than implied,” Sokka said weakly. Katara let out a derisive laugh and turned on Jet, who backed away, looking genuinely terrified.

“They seduced _me_ ,” he protested. “It wasn’t _my_ plan! I wouldn't have joined without an invite!”

 _Traitor_ Sokka had time to think, before Katara let out another mad cackle.

“ _They_ seduced _you_ , Jet?! How is that even possible?”

“Hey!” Sokka griped halfheartedly, “my animal magnetism—!”

“Don’t think you aren’t still in trouble, Sokka!” Katara rounded on him again. “I haven’t forgotten that you slept with _him_ ,” she now jabbed a finger at Zuko, “in the first place.”

“He’s a good guy now!” Sokka tried, but Katara quelled him with a single look.

“And _you!_ ” she stalked up to Zuko, giving him a good, hard shove to the chest. Sokka felt a streak of pride shoot through him when Zuko didn’t even budge, his look of stony indifference still in place. His eyes flashed briefly to Sokka’s face, then back to Katara. Sokka shivered a little. Ok, maybe he wasn’t having warm fuzzies toward Zuko—that hadn’t been a good look. More of a _I will get you later for putting us in this position_ kind of look _._ Well, Zuko had been a willing participant completely of his own accord.

Sokka looked over at Jet. He’d recovered enough that his nerves were only marked by the tense way he was rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, almost like he was getting ready to run at any second. His smirk slid over to Sokka, who shot him his very best “Don’t you even think about it, asshole” look. The smirk faltered before he managed to hitch it back onto his face.

“We’ve been down here for _hours_ ,” she spat. “And you never _once_ thought to tell me you’d been, been, been,” she waved her hand illustratively, “ _boning_ my brother?”

“Well technically _I_ was boning _him_ ,” Sokka said helpfully, then slapped a hand over his own mouth. Maybe now wasn’t the time to get into particulars. Maybe never. Especially when all it did was serve to draw Katara’s ire back to him.

“You complete _idiot_!” she screamed. “Is this where you’ve been the whole time? Doing Zuko? You didn’t have the basic decency to tell me he was in the city, let alone that you were seeing him?? You could have put us all in danger!”

“It looked to me like you two were getting pretty damn cozy down here,” Sokka snapped back, remembering that hey, he could be angry here too. She obviously didn’t understand, wasn’t willing to put aside her own prejudices to hear him out. Over her head he saw both Zuko and Aang flush and edge away from each other, Aang obviously angry, Zuko with something more akin to shame. _Good_ he thought savagely. _It would be one thing to cheat, but with my_ **sister** _?_

“Oh don’t you even dare,” Katara narrowed her eyes. “That has nothing to do with this. I was going to—“ she gestured over at Zuko’s face, deflating a little, “I was going to try to help. But—ugh. God.” She threw her hands into the air, casting her eyes skyward as though praying for Yue’s intervention. “We don’t have time for this right now.”

“Exactly,” Sokka said, relief hitting him like a 3-ton komodo rhino, “we have an Earth Kingdom to save.”

“You haven’t gotten out of this,” Katara reminded him. “Or you,” she pointed at Zuko. “Or _you_ ,” she said to Jet, who looked like he was hoping to become one with the cave wall.

“I’ll meet you,” Zuko said, as Katara turned and grabbed Aang by the elbow, ushering him down the tunnel. “I just need a minute.”

“You ok?” Sokka stepped in close, gesturing impatiently at Jet to follow Katara as he loitered for a moment, clearly uncertain. He gave Sokka a dubious look before turning on his heel and whipping off down the corridor with that disarming grace of his.

“I’m fine Sokka, just go,” Zuko said. Up close and examining him, he looked strained, still a little bit ill.

“Zuko, I—“ Sokka said, but Zuko shook his head at him.

“I can’t right now,” he muttered.

“But I have to, Zuko, you have to know,” Sokka rushed the words out, “I didn’t want to leave you when you were sick. Zuko, this thing we have, it’s out in the open now. We don’t have to hide, we can made it work.”

“It’s more complicated than that, Sokka,” Zuko’s face was closed off, impenetrable.

“Zuko,” Sokka wanted to touch him, wasn’t sure if that was allowed, wasn’t sure what was going on right now, “Zuko, I think I—“

“I can’t hear that right now,” Zuko cut him off, and Sokka could see desperation in his face, in his voice. “I’m not angry, just _go_ , ok? For once just do what someone asks you.”

Sokka shook his head, confused, hurt, uncomprehending. What was going on? He turned away, prepared to run after the others, but Zuko’s hand shot out, fastening onto his wrist.

He turned, baffled, _Hadn’t Zuko just said to go?_ but then Zuko was kissing him, and it was hot and wild and Zuko’s hands were in his hair and his teeth were in his lip and he drowning in him and his brain wasn’t working right, because he rucked up the back of Zuko’s tunic, looking for skin, looking for…

“Go,” Zuko’s voice was a rasp, barely discernible, but firm none the less.

Sokka nodded, his head still spinning, and stumbled off down the passageway.

 

***

He caught up with Katara, Jet, and Aang a few minutes later. Katara barely spared him a glance before she focused ahead, dodging past an outcropping of crystals. “We’ve got to find Toph,” she said, picking up her pace. “You sent her to the Earth King?”

“Yeah, with Iroh,” Sokka tried to say, but suddenly the crystal in front of him exploded. He threw himself on top of Katara instinctively, shards of crystal flying all over, and he heard Jet led out a shout of anger. Katara rolled out from under him, a ball of water already whipping through the air toward her, deflecting Azula’s lightning so that the room was blanketed in dense fog.

Sokka jumped up, his boomerang at the ready, but then Azula was soaring through the mist, bolts of blue lightning arching from her fingertips, coming to land on a rock pillar even as Aang’s face took on the look that meant he was concentrating to earthbend. Sokka barely had time to react, jumping out of the way as it collapsed, and Azula landed between Aang and Katara. She looked around, frenzied, trying to determine her best mode of egress, but Jet was advancing from the other side, his hooks at the ready.

Suddenly a blast of fire shot past them, and Azula spun, eyes widening to take in Zuko.

Sokka only just registered his presence when he saw him shoot another bolt of fire, but this time… this time Sokka watched it race past him, just in time for Aang to airbend himself out of its path, his startled gasp somehow so quiet and still so significant in the enormous chamber.

The world was spinning. Everything had tilted on its axis, because Katara was caught in a duel with Azula, and Zuko was attacking Aang, and Jet was running toward Sokka, a horrified expression on his face, and why was he doing that? Why wasn't anyone more worried about Zuko, about the fact that he'd lost it, that he was crazy, that something was so wrong that he was attacking Aang. He'd changed, he wasn't their enemy, he was Sokka's friend, his lover, his boyfriend. Jet reached out, but he was still far away, and he was pointing... It was only when he looked up just in time to see the chunk of pillar falling toward his head that he thought  _This afternoon really can’t get any worse_.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this kind of went to dark places... um... I have no excuses. Only promises that the next installment will have some more of the same angst, but also fun sex and eventually a happy ending!

Sokka didn’t really remember the escape from the cave. He had a vague impression of explosions and screaming, of strong, calloused hands wrapping around his waist and hefting him onto a shoulder, and, strangely, of Iroh’s voice, although he couldn’t imagine how that was possible. He’d come back to himself in time to hear Jet swearing vociferously as he clambered up Appa’s side, Sokka a dead weight slung over his back. He stirred feebly and patted at Jet’s back, trying to warn him that he was awake. Jet finally made it onto Appa’s saddle and ignored Sokka’s protestations in favor of laying him gently on the bedrolls at the back.

“I’m fine,” he grumbled, but Katara was already elbowing Jet aside. “Aang!” he complained, trying to push Katara away. “He’s more hurt!”

“Shut up, Sokka,” Katara bent a ball of water between her hands, dividing it and laying her palms against either side of his head. Her brow furrowed in concentration, but Sokka could already feel the dull throb leaching from his temples.

“Thank you,” he said quietly, grabbing her hand as she turned to Aang. She looked back at him, and for a moment her face was implacable. Then she gave him a weak, watery smile and reached back to pet a few strands of hair back into place.

“I don’t understand, but I love you. And besides,” she sighed heavily, “he betrayed both of our trust today. I thought he’d changed too.”

“Yeah,” Sokka swallowed thickly and clambered up while Katara went for the vial of spirit water around her neck. He climbed onto Appa’s head, and he lowed softly in response. “Yip yip, buddy,” he said sadly. “Let’s get the hell out of Ba Sing Se.”

 

***

He was pretty goddamned pleased with himself, if he could be allowed a couple of minutes of complete honesty. Stealing a Fire Nation battleship had been a stroke of genius, even if everything about it reminded him of Zuko. Stupid Fire Nation uniforms and flags and hangings and _gods_ , they had to be the worst interior decorators of all time. For a couple of seconds he wondered what Zuko’s bedroom at home looked like, in his palace, where he probably was now with his crazy sister and his evil dad. But that wasn’t doing him any good.

The problem was that everything reminded him of Zuko. Aang making googly eyes at Katara, Hakoda and Bato getting little too cozy up against the railing at night, Jet’s poorly disguised worried glances over dinner.

Because there was another problem. Jet.

The first time it happened had been sorta—ok, maybe not _that_ —accidental. It had been a cold night, the wind sheeting off the water in icy blasts (not that Sokka was cold, or anything, he was Southern Water Tribe), and he was leaning against the railing. At night the sea was black and featureless, the whitecaps edged with silver from the moon, and the ship rocked gently back and forth on the swells. He was giving into one of his rare fits of brooding—during the day he felt the same obligation to be the leader, the funny guy, and if it felt a little forced sometimes, well… he was fine anyway. Zuko couldn’t get to him.

Except for the times that he did.

A hand descended on the railing next to him, and Sokka jumped. Jet’s face was dark as he looked out over the water, and it was impossible to see his expression. In the absence of straw, he’d taken to chewing seamint. Sokka had dim memories of his mother making tea out of the leaves as a child. Jet’s jaw was working furiously, like he was frustrated or maybe nervous.

“I expected it,” he said suddenly. Sokka sagged against the railing.

“Yeah, you and everyone else. That doesn’t make me feel a hell of a lot better,” Sokka said tiredly.

“I expected it, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t suck,” Jet turned to lean on one elbow against the railing. He looked Sokka full in the face, and there was something searching in his gaze. “You’re probably way worse. There weren’t, like, _feelings_ with me and him.”

“What the hell is your point?” Sokka asked.

“Wanna get back at him?” Jet stepped in closer.

“Uh, what?”

Jet paused to spit his seamint overboard, ignoring the grossed out face Sokka made in response. His breath was cool and sweet from it, carried across the few intervening inches by the salty wind. “He wouldn’t want me to have you without him, would he?” Jet asked, reaching out to thumb at the bottom of Sokka’s tunic. His fingers slid up and around, cupping his hip gently.

“I doubt he gives a fuck, actually,” Sokka said bitterly, remembering Zuko’s impassive face in the caves. Right before he betrayed him. Jet’s hand was warm. Not firebender warm, but warm enough to chase away some of the cold.

“I think he’d be pissed,” Jet grinned, dark eyes glinting. “You wanna piss him off?” he leaned down, and Sokka’s field of vision was full of nothing but Jet.

Sokka nodded.

“Good,” Jet yanked Sokka in, his hand splaying out across his lower back, dragging their hips together. Sokka turned, shoving Jet up against the railing, abruptly impatient. Jet’s mouth was just as warm and wet as he’d remembered, his kisses slow and drugging, designed to make him melt. He wanted more than just making out right now though.

He broke away, hands pulling at Jet’s belt, fighting with the laces of his pants until he could get a hand down the front of them. Jet was hard already, leaking a little in a way that made Sokka wonder if he’d been hard before, had just come and found Sokka out of boredom and horniness. _Whatever_ he thought. It wasn’t like it mattered either way.

He dropped to his knees on the hard deck, glancing from left to right just to make sure they weren’t about to get interrupted. But, sure enough, they were the only ones on guard tonight, so whipping out Jet’s dick in the open wasn’t gonna be a problem.

Sokka yanked Jet’s pants down enough to free his cock, wrapped a steadying hand around the base. Jet’s hand cupped the back of his head, fingers in his hair, his dark face taut with anticipation.

“Fuck you look so good,” he whispered, and Sokka licked the head of his cock, opened his mouth to take it in. Jet’s hips lurched abortively, but he held back like he didn’t want to choke Sokka. Sokka didn’t really care one way or another; he tugged on Jet’s thigh with the hand not stroking in time with his mouth. “Shit, you serious?” Jet’s voice was deep, ragged, his breath hitching when Sokka nodded. He reached down and ran a finger across Sokka’s spit slick upper lip where it was drawn tight around his cock, and laughed a little disbelievingly to himself. “Such a pretty mouth, so lucky I get to fuck it.”

Sokka yanked on him a little more impatiently, and Jet laughed again. This one carried on the wind, but Sokka was past caring if they were found out. He was out on the deck in the bright moonlight, on his knees with Jet’s dick down his throat. He’d been in more compromising situations, but not recently.

Jet started slow, his fingers twisted into Sokka’s hair, Sokka keeping his throat relaxed, enjoying the hot glide of Jet’s cock across his tongue, the heavy weight of it filling his mouth. It was obviously doing it for Jet; he was staring down at Sokka in awe, spewing the same filth Sokka remembered so well from that night with Zuko. How good Sokka looked, how amazing he felt, what a pretty little cocksucker he was. Sokka kind of liked it, and he couldn’t figure out why that made him feel guilty. Whatever, Jet was hot, and he needed this tonight.

“Gonna come,” Jet finally gritted out, hands releasing Sokka’s head so that he could pull back, jack Jet’s cock with his hand instead of his mouth. “Fuck, gods, nngh, _Sokka_ ,” he slurred.

“Wanna come on my face?” the words left Sokka’s mouth before he really thought them through, but then Jet was nodding and yes, indeed, coming _all_ over Sokka’s face. His thumb rubbed it into Sokka’s bottom lip, and Sokka sucked it into his mouth, watching Jet’s face while he stood, grabbing Jet’s belt as he got up from the deck. Jet looked thoroughly fucked out— _Ironic, since he was the fucker instead of the fuck-ee_ —and he didn’t even protest when Sokka used his belt to wipe the mess off his cheeks and mouth.

Instead he reeled Sokka in by the back of the neck, pulling his face right up close to his.

“You are incredible,” he said, and something about his tone of voice sounded off, wrong to Sokka’s ears. He pushed away, at the same time that Jet tried to lean in to kiss him. That voice was too gentle, almost reverent, and he didn’t _want_ that, not from Jet, not from _anyone_. Not from anyone who wasn’t Zuko, and that fucking ship had sailed.

“You don’t get to do that,” Sokka stumbled away, his own voice raspy and raw from Jet’s cock. _Shit_ , he sounded like Zuko, and he remembered mornings-after when Zuko had been almost unintelligible, and Sokka had smirked when Iroh asked if he was coming down with a cold. He felt sick.

“Don’t you want me to…” Jet looked confused. He gestured to Sokka’s dick, and Sokka was happy that he’d turned away, that he’d been on his knees, that his tunic was long. Because the thing was that he hadn’t been hard that entire time, no matter how much he’d _wanted_ to be. And wasn’t that just fucking depressing.

“No,” he muttered. “I’m fine. Just… I have to go.”

And he’d left Jet standing by the railing, a disheveled mess, holding his useless belt in his hand.

 

***

That hadn’t been the last time, and Sokka had even gotten off after that, but somehow he knew that whatever this was with Jet wasn’t going to last. He took every bit of that knowledge, all the hurt and anger, and balled it up inside, so that every time Jet fucked him, or he sucked him off in some dark barely-private corner, he hoped that somewhere Zuko knew he was missing this.

That was enough for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned!!! Subscribe to me, leave comments/kudos if you're up for it (they inspire me!), and let me know what you want to see next time. Love to all of you, and thanks for reading :-)

**Author's Note:**

> As always, please let me know if there are typos!
> 
> And now I also have a [tumblr](http://omgbeersforqueers.tumblr.com/)!!! Prompt me dammit!


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